Saya dan keluarga serta bagi pihak kakitangan Pejabat Khidmat DUN Seri Andalas mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri kepada semua umat Islam terutamanya penduduk DUN Seri Andalas.
Semoga Aidilfitri kali ini disambut dengan kemeriahan dan kegembiraan bersama sanak saudara serta jiran tetangga.
Walaupun, Aidilfitri merupakan perayaan bagi umat Islam, tetapi telah menjadi budaya kita rakyat Malaysia meraikan perayaan bersama-sama. Teruskanlah amalan kunjung-mengunjungi antara satu sama lain serta memupuk semangat keharmonian antara kaum.
Kepada mereka yang akan pulang ke kampung dan membuat perjalanan jauh, pastikan anda memandu dengan berhemah. Pastikan anda pergi dan pulang dengan selamat.
Akhir sekali, saya ingin mengambil kesempatan memohohon maaf sekiranya ada kesilapan dan kekurangan. Usaha pasti diteruskan dan ditingkatkan demi keselesaan penduduk di DUN Seri Andalas.
Sekian, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
YB Dr. Xavier Jayakumar Ahli Dewan Negeri Selangor Kawasan Seri Andalas
A boy with cuts all over his body is using every ounce of his strength to cling on to a rubber-gloved medic trying to lay him on a hospital bed.
What the haunting photograph does not capture are the Palestinian boy's screams at the paramedic: "I want my father, bring me my father!"
It also fails to show the gaping wound on the left side of his head, the large piece of shrapnel in his neck, and smaller pieces lodged in his chest and abdomen, sustained after being caught in artillery fire from Israel.
The story behind the photograph taken at Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital last Thursday – and disseminated across the world – was revealed by a junior doctor Belal Dabour in a piece for the pro-Palestinian masthead The Electronic Intifada.
"At around 3am, about eight or nine casualties arrived at the emergency room all at once. The last to come in were four siblings – two of them little children, both about three years old, with relatively superficial wounds," he wrote.
"Then came the older of the four siblings, a boy in his early teens. His head and face were covered in blood and he was pressing a rag to his head to staunch the flow. But his focus was on something else: 'Save my little brother!' he kept screaming."
The unnamed boy pictured in the photograph was thrashing about and screaming for his father as the paramedic carried him straight from the emergency unit to intensive care.
"Upon carefully examining the wounds, it appeared that the explosion from the artillery round sent flying small pieces of stone from the walls of his house, and that some of his wounds were caused by these high-velocity projectiles," Dr Dabour wrote.
The shrapnel in the boy's neck just missed a major artery, the piece in his chest nearly punctured a lung, and the one in his stomach nearly hit his bowel. But the child was a "lucky" one, Dr Dabour said, because he had seen too many killed.
Just a day earlier, four boys aged between nine and 11 were playing on the beach in Gaza City when Israeli military strikes slaughtered them. They were cousins.
As the Islamic militant group Hamas and Israeli troops prepare to enter day 14 of their latest conflict, the death toll sits at 417 Palestinians and 18 Israelis.
A third of Palestine’s dead were children, the United Nations children's agency declared on Saturday. About 50 boys and 20 girls between three months and18 years of age had been slain.
"From July 8, until 4am on July 19, at least 73 Palestinian children have been reported killed as a result of air strikes and shelling by Israel aerial, naval and ground forces," UNICEF’s Catherine Weibel said.
Israel accused Hamas of using the Gaza population as a human shield, firing rockets from civilian areas and infrastructure.
Dr Dabour ended his account by saying he did not find out the youngster’s name as too many people – “some arrived torn to pieces, some beheaded, some disfigured beyond recognition” – arrived to be saved.
“I do not know whether he was reunited with his father, or even what became of the rest of his family,” he wrote. “But there's one thing that I know for sure, which is that hundreds of children just like him suffered similar or worse injuries, and up to the moment of this writing, nearly 80 children just like him have been killed as Israel's merciless attack goes on.”
The news: As Israeli military forces make their way into the Gaza Strip in a major new ground invasion, this infographic from Visualizing Palestine has some perspective on the relative costs each side has paid in this entrenched conflict.
According to their data, 79% of deaths in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 2000-2008 have been from Israeli military or police actions against residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Just 8% of total deaths during that time period were from Palestinian attacks on Israel. The infographic doesn’t necessarily assign blame to one side or the other, but notes that who was killed by who “first” was determined by whichever side attacked after a day of peace.
In all, since 2000 some 6,792 Palestinians and 1,102 Israelis have paid the ultimate price over the ongoing dispute. Since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, it’s become even more disproportionate: 3,457 Palestinians and 125 Israelis have died.
Why the huge gap? Israel unilaterally pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, removing all security forces and civilians. Israeli citizens in the area who refused to vacate were actually removed by unarmed soldiers. Since then, Hamas began emphasizing the political process and strengthened its support among Palestinians, eventually taking control of the entire Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in a violent coup in 2007. So for a time, they were quite busy focusing on the situation within their own territory. The resulting 2008 Gaza War between Hamas and Israel saw nearly 200 Israeli citizens injured and a few killed, during which Israeli counterattacks drew far greater blood from the Palestinian side.
It’s not that Hamas hates Israel any less now that it’s in a position of power. Instead, they’ve had more domestic problems to deal with as they solidified their position in Gaza and fewer opportunities to attack Israel thanks to better security. Hamas’ use of suicide bombings fell dramatically since the Second Intifada in 2005, and the organization began abandoning suicide attacks in 2006. The last such attack in Israel happened in April 2008, when three bombers in Kerem Shalom killed themselves and injured 13 others. Hamas apparently decided the tactic was costly and ineffective. Further factors preventing further bombings also included the construction of security walls and checkpoints which made it harder for extremists to slip into Israeli cities and settlements.
Launching rockets against Israeli cities became the preferred tactic. But from 2011 onwards, Israel’s Iron Dome defense system has ensured that many Palestinian rockets fired towards Israel (which were alreadypretty poorly designed) have simply been shot down or disabled. Despite being more powerful, Hamas now lacks the ability to launch suicide campaigns. Overwhelming Israeli military and intelligence superiority has thwarted even some recent attempts by militants to sneak over the border.
The Israeli capacity to strike back, on the other hand, has only grown. Israeli reprisals against Hamas have grown both bigger in scale and more aggressive since the organization seized power in Gaza. The U.S. has also funneled huge amounts of money into the Israeli military, by some accounts providing 23-25% of its funding. There’s just simply no comparison between the two sides’ military strength and indeed their capacity for inflicting pain on the other anymore.
Why you should care: As Vox’s Max Fisher notes, Israeli military and defense superiority and its increased control over Palestinian territory may have actually helped prevent an agreement. The economic blockade in place since 2007 has sent many Palestinians into poverty, helping Hamas find steady recruits despite a disastrous lack of success in its campaign against Israel. (Paradoxically, extremist groups thrive in terrible socioeconomic conditions even when they’re partially responsible for them.) The expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank furthermore indicates to many Palestinians that agreements can’t be trusted.
Meanwhile, the Israeli public’s support for a solution that would grant Palestinian independence, once massive, has plummeted. Fisher says that suicide bombings during the Second Intifada convinced many Israelis that peace with Palestinians was impossible, and this “sense of apathy” has been further encouraged by the other side’s subsequent inability to fight back. Since Israel has incontestably won the physical battle, when shots go off Palestinians are far more likely to be in the line of fire. That’s just the frank reality of the situation.
Taman Sentosa, Klang, 19 Julai 2014 - Satu program berbuka puasa telah diadakan di Masjid Al-Barakah , Taman Sentosa pada hari ini.
YB Dr. Xavier Jayakumar yang turut serta dalam program tersebut telah menyampaikan sumbangan kepada ibu-ibu tunggal dan keluarga-keluarga yang berpendapatan rendah.
Dengan sumbangan yang diberikan, YB Dr Xavier berharap dapat sedikit sebanyak meringankan beban mereka menghadapi musim perayaan ini.
Kampung Jawa, 19 Julai 2014 - Pejabat ADUN Seri Andalas pada hari ini telah menganjurkan program Jom Shopping sempena persiapan Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
Program telah dijalankan di pasaraya Econsave Kampung Jawa. Sebanyak 500 kupon RM100 setiap satu telah diberi kepada 500 peserta yang hadir.
Turut hadir bersama YB Dr. Xavier Jayakumar pada program tersebut adalah Ketua-ketua Kampung, Tuan Hj Ismail, Tuan Hj Buang, Tuan Hj Miswan dan Ahli-ahli Majlis.
YB Dr. Xavier Jayakumar mengucapkan terima kasih kepada semua sukarelawan yang datang membantu.
Kota Kemuning, 19 Julai 2014 - YB Dr Xavier Jayakumar pada hari ini menghadiri satu majlis makan malam meraih dana di Kuil Sri Kaliaman di Kota Kemuning Golf & Country Club.
Tujuan majlis tersebut adalah untuk meraih dana bagi pembinaan semula sebuah kuil. Program dijayakan dengan anggaran kehadiran 1500 orang.
I declare full support for the call by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for an emergency parliamentary sitting on the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
We in Pakatan are totally committed to any resolution to categorically condemn the mass murder committed by the perpetrators. In this regard, the Prime Minister must be unequivocal in naming the party or parties responsible, whoever they may be.
We also fully support the demand that the culprits of this crime be brought to justice and that all necessary measures be taken to facilitate a swift, effective and independent investigation.
This is indeed a time of grief and sadness for all Malaysians as it is too for others and we urge all parties to refrain from making statements or remarks that are insensitive to the feelings of the families and loved ones of the innocent victims.
Palestinians as a diverse society are neither reducible to Hamas nor can they be denied the right to resist occupation.
In much of the North American and western European media reporting on the current Israeli carnage of Palestinians, a common refrain is that Hamas has also shot some rockets towards Israel. Given the sophisticated defence system Israel possesses, courtesy of US taxpayers, none of these rockets hit any targets and fortunately no Israeli man, woman, or child has lost any life or limb because of them. This fact has scarcely bothered BBC, CNN, or any other shamelessly pro-Israeli outlet that always seeks to “balance” their reporting on Gaza by mentioning the fact that Hamas has also shot some rockets towards the Jewish state.
In one particularly nefarious example, Diane Sawyer of ABC showed a picture of Palestinians enduring Israeli bombing but told her American audience these were the pictures of Israelis under attack by Hamas rockets.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that Hamas does shoot some rockets towards Israel, and though these rockets scarcely harm anyone does not diminish their intent, which is to hit somewhere or harm someone. So the Hamas operation intends to harm people but they cannot do as they wish for their military wherewithal is not outsourced to the United States.
Thanks to AIPAC and other Israeli lobbies and pro-Israeli billionaires, among them those who encourage US President Barack Obama to nuke Iran on behalf of Israel, Israel enjoys a special relationship with the most deadly military machinery on the planet and partakes in that deadly force at will. Hamas in this regard has lost the bid to its Israeli counterparts and any outside military help they might receive is from countries like Iran that can hardly be compared to that gargantuan deadly machine called the US.
Erratic rockets
Useless as they are, why is Hamas firing these erratic rockets, and why would they not stop them anyway? Why bother? They are hardly any match for the Israeli army. After all, Hamas is David and Israel is Goliath in this contest. Wouldn’t Palestinians be better off without Hamas trying to defend them in Gaza?
Here we need to ask the question in a slightly larger context. Is Hamas not a legitimate Palestinian organisation, with enough grassroots support that itwon a major parliamentary election in Gaza back in 2006? I have known, and I still know, many Palestinians who do not like Hamas, disagree with their ideology, and oppose their ways. But these Palestinians of diverse political opinions are as much part of the Palestinian resistance to occupation and theft of their homeland as Hamas is.
Like any other richly diversified society, Palestinians are composed of followers of many religions, politics, and ideologies. Palestinians are Christian, Muslim, atheists, and agnostic. They are nationalist and/or socialists. They are secularists, Islamists, post-Islamists, and post-secularists. They are feminists, modernists, post-modernists, deconstructionists, and they are nativists at times, cosmopolitan at others, unionists, pacifists, militants, you name it. One of them was a founding figure of a school of critical thinking called post-colonial studies.
By far the most consistent and the most definitive aspect of Palestinian resistance to the occupation and theft of their homeland over the decades has been non-violent civil disobedience. Resistance for Palestinians is definitive of who and what they are. They might be a poet like Mahmoud Darwish, a novelist like Ghassan Kanafani, a film-maker like Michel Khleifi, an artist like Mona Hatoum, a feminist like Lila Abu Lughod – but in doing what they do, whatever they do, they oppose and defy the armed robbery of their homeland.
But there are also those Palestinians who have taken arms and opposed villainy by violence. As part of this resistance, Hamas is integral to the Palestinian national liberation movement, but like any other forms of resistance, Hamas is not definitive to Palestine.
Israeli propaganda machinery
What the Israeli propaganda machinery does is to reduce the entirety of Palestine, the rich and diversified tapestry of Palestinian resistance, to Hamas, then demonise Hamas. The strategy works, especially aided and abetted by major state-sponsored or corporate media like BBC, ABC, or CNN. Execute this strategy, and go on a rampage against Palestinians, maim and murder them with impunity.
Now for the sake of argument: Suppose we wake up tomorrow morning and there is no Hamas to shoot off any useless rockets towards Israel. Then what? The magnificent Israeli benevolence will move into operation and return the stolen Palestine to their rightful owners? Of course not. Suppose Hamas did not even exist since its founding in 1987. Then what? Israel would have by now returned Palestine to its rightful owners? Of course not.
Palestinians are varied and Palestinians are entirely entitled to resist and oppose the occupation and theft of their homeland by any means they deem necessary – whether it is by a beautiful song by Muhammad Assaf, a magnificent poem by Mahmoud Darwish, a film by Elia Suleiman, a novel by Ghassan Kanafani, a book on Palestinian costumes by Widad Kawar, or another on Palestinian cuisine by Rawia Bishara or by the militant Marxist organisation PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), or indeed through the Islamist ideology of Hamas.
One may not agree with Hamas, may not join them, but one cannot reduce the entire tapestry of Palestinian resistance to Hamas, or tell Hamas to disband, for Israelis are about to return Palestine to its rightful owners.
So the bogus proposition that Hamas provokes Israel to attack Gaza is not only narratively false because Israeli military operations in Palestine always predate any Hamas operation, but also because Palestinians in their entirety are neither reducible to Hamas nor can they be denied the right to resist occupation in whatever form they deem necessary. Dividing these forms of resistance into “moderate” and “militant” will also lead nowhere but the pestiferous Washington think tanks.
A film by Annemarie Jacir, an art installation by Emily Jacir, a poem by Rafeef Ziadah or Dana Dajani, or a moving song by Rim Banna is infinitely more radical than any flimsy rocket that Hamas might fire. The Israeli propaganda machinery does not want the world to know these radically defiant forms of Palestinian resistance that have grabbed Zionism by the throat for generations and do not allow it to swallow Palestine. But they magnify Hamas as the face of Palestine.
Military atrocities
In a future free and democratic Palestine, who knows how many votes Hamas would garner in a given election. But we are nowhere near that moment yet – and Israel and its criminal military atrocities are the principle obstacle why we are nowhere near that point. Until then, Palestinians are perfectly entitled to resist the robbery of their homeland by any means they deem necessary, including, but never limited to, Hamas.
Hamas does not provoke Israel to attack Gaza. Palestinians do. The very name of Palestine, the very fact and phenomenon of being a Palestinian, being a witness to the moral bankruptcy of the very idea of Zionism provokes Israel. The mere existence of Palestinians is the denial of Israel and its dominant Zionist ideology. That is the reason that Golda Meir famously said there are no Palestinians, for if there were any Palestinians, she would be a joke. So she had to say there are no Palestinians in order to be an Israeli prime minister.
So anytime you hear an Israeli propagandist mention the word “Hamas”, substitute for it “Palestinians” and the replaced signifier is far closer and truer to what they mean. They want to level that land from one end to another, continue to ethnically cleanse it, and call it Israel, and wash, as one young Israeli put it bluntly, Palestinians into the sea.
Zionism as a murderous machinery of colonial conquest will not stop until the very last inch of Palestine is taken – and yet the Palestinians persist in their homeland, resist occupation, procreate, sing, dance, compose music and poetry, make films, stage drama, organise acts of civil disobedience, mobilise for BDS … and yes, of course, some of them also pick up a few flimsy arms against the most sophisticated armed robbery of a homeland in history.
There’s nothing funny about Malaysia Airlines losing two Boeing 777s and more than 500 lives in the space of four months. That hasn’t kept the humor mills from churning out dark humor and lighting up cyberspace.
Actor Jason Biggs, for example, got in trouble for tweeting: “Anyone wanna buy my Malaysia Airlines frequent flier miles?” A passenger supposedly among the 298 people aboard Flight 17 that was shot down over eastern Ukraine yesterday uploaded a photo of the doomed plane on Facebook just before takeoff in Amsterdam, captioning it: “Should it disappear, this is what it looks like.”
That reference, by a man reportedly named Cor Pan, was to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, whose disappearance in March continues to provide fodder for satirists, conspiracy theorists and average airplane passengers with a taste for the absurd. On my own Malaysia Air flight last month, I was struck by all the fatalistic quips around me — conversations I overheard and in those with my fellow passengers. One guy deadpanned: “First time I ever bought flight insurance.”
There is, of course, no room for humor after this disaster or the prospect that the money-losing airline might not survive — at least not without a government rescue. This company had already become a macabre punch line, something no business can afford in the Internet and social-media age. It’s one thing to have a perception problem; it’s quite another to have folks around the world swearing never to fly Malaysia Air.
Nor is no margin for mistakes by Malaysia or the airline this time, even though all signs indicate that there is no fault on the part of the carrier. The same can’t be said for the bumbling and opacity that surrounded the unexplained loss of Flight 370. Even if there was no negligence on the part of Malaysia Air this week, the credibility of the probe and the willingness of Prime Minister Najib Razak‘s government to cooperate with outside investigators — tests it failed with Flight 370 — will be enormously important.
As I have written before, the botched response to Flight 370 was a case study in government incompetence and insularity. After six decades in power, Najib’s party isn’t used to being held accountable by voters, never mind foreign reporters demanding answers. Rather than understand that transparency would enhance its credibility, Malaysia’s government chose to blame the international press for impugning the country’s good name.
The world needs to be patient, of course. If Flight 370′s loss was puzzling, even surreal, Flight 17 is just plain tragic. It’s doubtful Najib ever expected to be thrown into the middle of Russian-Ukraine-European politics. Although there are still so many unanswered questions — who exactly did the shooting and why? — it’s depressing to feel like we’re revisiting the Cold War of the early 1980s, when Korean Air Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet fighter jet.
More frightening is how vulnerable civilian aviation has become. Even if this is the work of pro-Russian rebels, yesterday’s attack comes a month after a deadly assault on a commercial jetliner in Pakistan. One passenger was killed and two flight attendants were injured as at least 12 gunshots hit Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK-756 as it landed in the northwestern city of Peshawar. It was the first known attack of its kind and raises the risk of copycats. The low-tech nature of such assaults — available to anyone with a gripe, a high-powered rifle and decent marksmanship — is reason for the entire world to worry.
The days ahead will be filled with postmortems and assigning blame. That includes aviation experts questioning why Malaysia Air took a route over a war zone being avoided by Qantas, Cathay Pacific and several other carriers. The key is for Malaysian authorities to be open, competent and expeditious as the investigation gains momentum. Anything less probably won’t pass muster.
Pihak pejabat ingin memaklumkan bahawa tweet di bawah bukanlah daripada akaun twitter Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim (@anwaribrahim). Kami kesal dengan tindakan sesetengah pihak yang cuba mengambil kesempatan untuk memburuk-burukkan beliau tanpa mengambil kira perasaan keluarga mangsa dan sensitiviti seluruh rakyat Malaysia.
Pejabat Ketua Pembangkang Parlimen Malaysia
18 Julai 2014
Twit palsu :
Twit sebenar Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim berkenaan #MH17
KIEV: A Malaysia Airlines passenger airliner with 295 people on board crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border yesterday, the Interfax news agency cited an aviation industry source as saying. The Boeing plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, it said.
The Interfax report said the plane came down 50km (20 miles) short of entering Russian airspace. It "began to drop, afterwards it was found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory," the unnamed source said.
The plane appeared to have come down in a region of military action where Ukrainian government forces are battling pro-Russian separatists.
A separate unnamed source in the Ukrainian security apparatus, quoted by Interfax, said the plane disappeared from radar at a height of 10,000 metres after which it came down near the town of Shakhtyorsk.
The Ukraine Interior Ministry was reported as saying the plane was shot down with a ground-to-air missile near the Ukraine-Russian borders. It blamed separatists for the tragedy.
Meanwhile in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Airlines said it had "lost contact" with one of its passenger planes whose last known position was over Ukraine.
"Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam," the airline, still reeling from the disappearance of flight MH370, said on its Twitter account.
"The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace," it said, adding that it would provide more details soon.
Ukarine regional officials said the number of dead was "not yet known" but Russian news agency Itar-Tass cited an unnamed source at Ukraine's aviation authority as saying there were no survivors. Eyewitnesses quoted by Russian news agency RIA Novosti spoke of dozens of bodies at the crash site.
Interfax also quoted the deputy prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Andrei Purgin, as saying a group of rebels had arrived at scene and found "many dead".
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the jet may have been shot down.
"We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky," Poroshenko said in a statement.
The Boeing 777 aircraft was expected in the Malaysian capital at around 6:00 am on Friday Malaysia Airlines said.
Still reeling from the disappearance of flight MH370, Malaysia announced on Twitter the loss of the airliner.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on his Twitter feed he was "shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed."
"We are launching an immediate investigation."
Ukraine's Poroshenko expressed his "deepest and sincerest sympathies for the families and loved ones of those killed" and vowed that "those behind this tragedy will be brought to justice."
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama had discussed the shocking new development in crisis-torn Ukraine where fighting between pro-Russian separatists and the Western-backed government has claimed over 600 lives.
The incident comes just months after Malaysia's Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 239 on board. The plane diverted from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight path and its fate remains a mystery despite a massive aerial and underwater search.
Rescue workers say they have found at least 100 bodies, near the village of Grabovo, spread across an area of up to 15 kilometres, Reuters reports.
Broken piecsofd dozens of severely mutilated corpses could be seen strewn in the wreckage of a Malaysian airliner that crashed Thursday in rebel-held eastern Ukraine, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Debris was spread out for kilometres and the tail of a passenger jet lay in a corn field with the Malaysian Airlines insignia on it while insurgent fighters and several fire trucks were seen nearby the crash site.
Klang, 15 Julai 2014 - Program Mengacau & Mengagih Bubur Lambuk Sempena Nuzul Quran 1435 Hijrah telah diadakan pada hari ini dari jam 9 pagi hingga 6 petang di hadapan Markaz PAS Teluk Menegun.
Program agihan bubur lambuk diadakan setiap tahun pada bulan Ramadhan di DUN Seri Andalas.
Klang, 3 Julai 2014 - YB Dr Xavier Jayakumar dan PEKAWANIS yang diwakili Pn. Sheila Devaraj, menyampaikan sumbangan hari raya kepada 30 orang ibu tunggal di Pejabat ADUN Seri Andalas pada hari ini.
We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic news of the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 people on board.
Our deepest condolences go to the relatives and loved ones of the passengers and crew who perished in this horrific mid-air disaster. In particular to the families of our 43 Malaysians who have lost their lives, we share their sorrow and bereavement and pray for strength to get through this tragedy.
While it has been reported that the Boeing 777-200ER MAS jetliner was shot down by a surface to air missile over the conflict zone in Ukraine, it has not been established who is responsible.
Regardless of that, we condemn this act of terrorism and urge the international authorities to conduct a full and independent investigation and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this mass murder.
Meanwhile, we call on MAS and our Malaysian authorities to do their utmost in handling the disaster and in particular to be utterly sensitive to the feelings and totally responsive to the needs of the families and loved ones.
This is yet another national tragedy and our moment of deep grief and sorrow.
Anwar Ibrahim Opposition Leader, Malaysian Parliament Ketua Umum, Parti Keadilan Rakyat
Tuntutan perjalanan atau dikenali sebagai TNT bagi kakitangan kerajaan merupakan salah satu kemudahan membuat urusan rasmi untuk menjalankan tugas di luar kawasan.
Isu yang ingin saya utarakan di sini ialah tuntutan perjalanan yang masih belum dibayar oleh Kementerian Pelajaran terhadap kakitangannya terutamanya di Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri.
Sebagai kakitangan kerajaan, contohnya guru apabila dikehendaki mengikuti kursus, mesyuarat dan menghantar pelajar dalam kegiatan kokurikulum akan mendahulukan wang sendiri bagi urusan membayar tol dan juga petrol.
Kebiasaanya akan dibayar dalam tempoh dua bulan selepas tuntutan dibuat, namun demikian isu tuntutan ini telah berlanjutan hampir empat bulan tetapi sehingga kini tuntutan bulan Mac hingga Jun masih lagi belum dibayar.
Jika dahulu mungkin ada yang ambil tidak endah isu kelewatan pembayaran ini namun dengan kedatangan Hari Raya Aidifitri dan kos kehidupan yang telah meningkat naik menyebabkan kami para guru amat tertekan untuk menyambut kedatangan hari raya yang bakal menjelang.
Kami berharap pihak Kementerian Pelajaran dapat menyalurkan peruntukan kepada Jabatan Pelajaran untuk melunaskan pembayaran tuntutan perjalanan yang tertunggak dari bulan Mac hingga kini.
Ini kerana apabila ditanya kepada Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah mengenai isu ini, mereka menjelaskan bahawa pihak Kementerian Pelajaran tidak mempunyai peruntukan.
Sewajarnya pihak kementerian melihat isu ini secara serius kerana para guru telah melaksanakan tanggungjawab dan amanah mereka.
Saya amat berharap pihak kementerian akan mengambil serius mengenai perkara ini dan mendapatkan maklumat mengenai Jabatan Pelajaran mana yang masih belum menbayar TNT tersebut.
Walaupun nanti akan ada yang mengatakan ini adalah isu remeh yang sengaja diperbesarkan saya berpendapat sekiranya isu yang remeh tidak diselesaikan manakan dapat menyelesaikan isu yang besar.
Speech by Anwar Ibrahim at the Economic Agenda Forum & Iftar on July 16, 2014 at the Menteri Besar Selangor's Official Residence
Introduction In the run up to the last general elections, the rakyat were treated to a barrage of proposed economic reforms that looked good on paper and even more impressive through media campaigns which cost millions of ringgit of the tax payers' money. All kinds of promises and pledges were made.
However, among the first actions taken by the government immediately after the general elections was to raise the price of petrol and sugar. Since then, it's been one after another round of price increases while the promised reforms turned out to be mere sound bites.
In our case, despite winning the popular vote of 52%, we were denied our legitimate right to rule. But our conviction for change has not dissipated, our hope still very much alive and our will still firm and resolute.
Today, let me share with you our road map to a new economic agenda for Malaysia as we go forward towards 2018.
Rising cost of living, mounting household debt The problem of inflation causes hardship to the people. When the rate of growth in monthly incomes for the working people lags behind the rate of inflation, hardship follows.
Many are finding it hard to make ends meet. Many have to look for other sources of income. Even more have to resort to borrowing. Household debt builds up. At 86.6% percent of the GDP, our household debt is one of the highest in the world.There is indeed a clear and present danger of the rising tide of household debt inundating us.
Widening gap between rich and poor The gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger. At a high Gini coefficient of around 0.46, the top 20% of households own more than half of the Gross National Income while the bottom 40% own less than one sixth.
Just two days ago, the nation was presented with a set of numbers that purported to show how well we are doing in terms of our overall economy: as compared to last year, it seems, our growth is more robust, foreign investment is doing well, we are more competitive at the international level and the process towards a high income economy is on track.
But let us set the record straight.
Foreign owned debt and overheating Our GDP for 2013 stood at USD 312.44 billion or close to RM 1trillion (RM 999.8bn). According to BNM, as at November, 2013, almost 45% of our local sovereign bond market is foreign held.
Our economy is exhibiting classic signs of overheating, including credit growth that is racing ahead of GDP growth and incomes and a currency that has seen sustained appreciation notwithstanding recent volatility.
Govt debt to GDP ratio is at 54.8%, inching closer to the 55% ceiling, household debt is at an all time high of around 86.6% GDP and corporate debt is approaching 96% of GDP.
The reality is that many workers may have jobs and incomes today but may lose them all in a year or two or even a few months. We do not have a comprehensive social safety net. This breeds unrest and an overall lack of economic confidence.
We saw how such a situation blew up in the face of unbridled American free market capitalism in the wake of the 2007 sub-prime crisis. We have witnessed the riots in Greece and Spain and other European cities essentially as a result of the hardship of workers losing their jobs. And do not forget that it happened in spite of a better social safety net than ours.
KIDEX Detractors have said that we should not complain about highway projects such as KIDEX if we want better transport. But they are missing the point. KIDEX is not the best answer to the people's need for good and cheap public transport. There is moral culpability here in both the Federal and State governments when in the face of a rising chorus of opposition from the people, they choose not to hear but instead ride roughshod over their pleas.
To further promote a pro-Rakyat administration, we will fix a time line for government bodies that own highway concessions to transfer them to the government so that tolls will be abolished. There must be public consultation on major development projects before giving concessions or conditional approvals or exercising powers under the Land Acquisition Act.
There must be transparency in the process and documents should be allowed for public viewing. There must be a proper balance between development needs and the intrinsic needs of the people. For example, failure to respect Native Customary Rights would only stir conflict and lead to injustice as we have witnessed in several major instances in Sarawak. Nevertheless, we laud the recent landmark court decisions in favour of the people.
Prescription for going forward
Inclusive growth We will pursue a growth strategy coupled with equality of opportunity, supported by three policy pillars:
1. Sustained growth to create productive jobs for a wide section of the population; 2. Social inclusion to equalize access to opportunity; and 3. Social safety nets to mitigate vulnerability and risks and prevent extreme poverty.
Labour market reforms To address the time bomb of the rising household debt, we must raise the incomes of the labouring poor through a mix of measures centering on labour market reforms, allowing legitimate unions to rise, changing the public-private sector mix in the provision of social goods and services, improvements in the quality of education and good governance.
We are locked in at the low value-added, high volume and low wage stage of the value-added chain in manufacturing and services. The dependence on migrant workers discourages entrepreneurs to shift to more capital and knowledge-intensive methods of production. This has to stop.
A minimum wage that provides for a decent living standard for the workers must be enforced. During the transition, assistance in the form of financial grants and productivity boosting measures may have to be given to small firms that have difficulty in implementing the minimum wage.
GST a weapon of injustice Regressive tax measures such as GST are morally wrong. The greatest negative impact of the GST is not that it will be taxing all consumers as such but in doing so, the greatest burden of the rise in prices will fall on the middle 40%. On the other hand, the top 20% of income earners will experience the least impact as a proportion of their income.
Without effective creation of employment opportunities that improve both productivity and take-home incomes, the bottom 40% will struggle to graduate to the middle, and the heavily-squeezed middle will struggle to foot the new tax bill.
Crony capitalism and subsidy rationalisation Subsidy rationalisation is not morally wrong in itself, but if subsidies are cut whilst cronies are awarded with overvalued highway concessions, allowed to monopolise key industries, or given fat contracts without competitive tender – then it is unjust and oppressive.
Why should the poor and the middle class have to tighten their belts while the rich loosen theirs? Occcasional BR1M payments are not enough to help families escape the low-income trap. It only perpetuates the rakyat in a state of economic vulnerability and dependency on government handouts.
In our strategy, however, this injustice and oppression will be removed for we will maintain subsidies for the poor and ensure that those for the rich and powerful will be withdrawn.
Promote inclusive growth To promote inclusive growth, sectors currently under crony domination need to be opened up. This should be a managed process that allows new entrepreneurs to introduce greater competition while being fair to the employees of existing industries.
Secondly, emphasis should be given to opportunities for low-income households to take up job opportunities. Re-skilling programmes can be further implemented. There should be better guarantee of employee rights and women, in particular, should not be penalised in terms of wages.
Thirdly, collective bargaining should be protected. Government, employers and employees all have to work together to reduce inequality at a pace acceptable to all. Fair and transparent dialogue within a clear framework is the basis for this.
Fourthly, to support inclusive growth,BNM should introduce a counter-cyclical monetary policy that would reduce volatility and increase the ability of poor households to accumulate productive assets.
Social justice agenda
Health care In our social justice agenda, our humane economy will place priorty on better and more accessible health care. We see the mushrooming of private hospitals particularly in the urban areas while the needs of the poor are often neglected.
Privatization of health care must be stopped. Instead there should be good and better state provision of health care services. A universal health care program encompassing all aspects such as public access, palliative and curative medicine and the infrastructure development of public hospitals and clinics must be introduced.
Housing for the poor In the case of housing, a National Housing Development Board should be set up. Build affordable houses for workers and even executives in the industrial and services sub-sectors. Given the scarcity of land in many urban areas, this board should consider constructing affordable houses and to provide free transport to the central business districts.
Democratisation of access to education The mushrooming of private schools and international schools catering mostly only to the rich is a trend that runs counter to the democratization of access to quality education. It is contrary to the basic principles of social mobility. There must be funding for educational institutions at all levels and for academic, technical and vocational streams in order to expand access to Malaysians of all walks of life. Free and quality education is a fundamental liberty.
Strengthening domestic economic resilience We need to implement more small-scale public infrastructural projects that can be outsourced to small time contractors. Their technical and financial capacities can be enhanced. Such small-scale projects have a larger multiplier effect as they are less dependent on imports for their supplies of inputs.
Women and youth There is a need for support systems to retain women in the work force and greater efforts to increase their participation. This includes better, possibly subsidised childcare and elderly care services, flexible work arrangements, and family friendly employment policies.
The youth make up about 60 per cent of the total unemployed, with those in the 20-24 age group being the largest proportion at 40%. What we need urgently are social programmes and skills training for their empowerment to reduce their sense of marginalisation and alienation.
Conclusion In the coming years, we will enhance our pro-rakyat approach as outlined above while pursuing the best practices in governance with specific growth oriented and pro-rakyat steps to be introduced at all levels.
By demonizing the Palestinian leadership, the Israeli prime minister raised expectations for a decisive victory and opened the door for attacks from the right.
Launching military campaigns in Israel is easy: the public idolizes the army and tends to support whatever measures it takes, and the parliamentary opposition rallies behind the government at such moments. Indeed, Benjamin Netanyahu's second campaign in Gaza as prime minister—and the third the country has launched in less than five years—was true to form, enjoying nearly unanimous support in Israel, despite heavy civilian casualties on the Palestinian side and the disruption to daily life caused by hundreds of rockets launched by Hamas, including at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Israel's international airport.
As the military campaign enters its second week, with more than 1,500 tons of explosives already dropped on the heavily populated Strip, an end game in Gaza is nowhere in sight. Egypt has offered a cease-fire similar to the one reached after the November 2012 military campaign, and a fragile truce might indeed emerge, but none of the core issues in Gaza will be addressed—leading most observers to conclude that the clock is already ticking toward the next escalation.
Unlike operation Cast Lead in 2008–09, Operation Protective Edge didn't open with a "shock and awe" strike, which took the lives of hundreds in just the first few days, but rather escalated gradually, giving the sense that Israel would have rather avoided this round, if only Hamas ceased to fire rockets on Israeli towns.
Yet there is a wider context that should be considered: following the kidnapping of three Israeli teens on June 12, the government arrested hundreds of Hamas members in the West Bank, most of them from the political leadership who had nothing to do with the attack (which in all likelihood was carried out by rogue freelancers). Dozens of prisoners who had been released in the prisoner exchange deal for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit were detained again, as a purely punitive measure and without any evidence that they had returned to militant activities.
Since the accord between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, Israel has also prevented the transfer of funds that pay the salaries of public officials in Gaza. In fact, when UN envoy Robert Serry sought an arrangement with Israeli officials that would allow the salaries to be transferred, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to expel Serry for "aiding Hamas." And, not least, Israel had stepped up its own military activities in Gaza before the latest escalation, claiming the lives of several militants and at least one boy, who was injured on June 11 and died three days later.
The denial of funds, along with the closing of the tunnels from Egypt to Gaza by the new regime in Cairo, which is overtly hostile to Hamas, has caused a political and economic crisis in the Strip, and thus left Hamas—whose main political currency is its image of "resistance"—with little reason to avoid escalation.
These facts, which have been largely ignored by the Israeli media, do not justify Hamas's tactics, which deliberately target civilians in clear violation of international law. They suggest, however, the existence of alternative courses of action that Israel could have taken in the weeks preceding the current crisis. But the Israeli government has refused for years to address the fundamental problems in Gaza—the siege and its separation from the rest of the Palestinian population in Israel and the West Bank being the most obvious ones. The Hamas-PA accord actually presented Jerusalem with an opportunity to deal with Hamas politically; instead, Israel decided to cut ties with the newly formed government and even demanded that the international community follow suit.
Hamas entered this round of violence considerably weakened, having lost its allies in Cairo and having seen many of the tunnels under the Egyptian border destroyed, and its rocket attacks allowed Israel to portray its military campaign to the West as a legitimate self-defense measure. This very same freedom of maneuver, however, reveals the limits of Israeli strategy—or, some would argue, the lack of a strategy at all. Israeli could easily conquer Gaza, but it doesn't want to hold it, and what might seem like the ultimate Israeli goal—the destruction of Hamas—doesn't make much sense, since it's pretty clear that the ensuing anarchy would not serve Israel's interests. Far more extreme groups are waiting at the gate.
If Israel does end the war now, Prime Minister Netanyahu will face attacks from his political base on the right and among the settlers. The hard right, with its echo chamber in the media, already senses an opportunity. Amos Regev, the editor of the pro-Netanyahu daily Yisrael Hayom, called in an editorial for bombing Gaza "back to the stone age." Avigdor Lieberman went as far as saying that Israel should seize direct control of the Strip again, and on the eve of the military operation he broke his political pact with Netanyahu and the Likud, though he remains a part of the government. In a cabinet vote on Tuesday morning, settler leader Naftali Bennett opposed the Egyptian offer, and so did Lieberman. "The assumption is that whatever happens in this war, Netanyahu loses ground," an adviser to a senior Israeli politician told me this week, before details of the cease-fire offer were known.
Netanyahu can only blame himself for his political troubles. By demonizing the Palestinian leadership—Abbas just the same as Hamas—he raised expectations in the Israeli public for a decisive victory and opened the door for attacks from the right. His refusal to commit to a meaningful political process with the Palestinians, along with his insistence on maintaining the status quo through military superiority alone, will pretty much guarantee that this cycle of violent escalations continues in years to come.
Our media ingrains warped terminology that bolsters the effort to portray Israel as a victim. Here are a few examples.
"Gaza is an independent state." It is not. It and the West Bank are a single territorial unit composed of two parts. According to the international community's decisions, a state shall be established in these two parts, which are still under Israeli occupation, as are the Palestinians who live there.
Gaza and the West Bank have the same international area code — 970. (The separate code is an empty gesture left over from the Oslo period. The Palestinian phone system is a branch of the Israeli one. When the Shin Bet security service calls a house in Gaza to announce that the air force is going to bomb that house, the Shin Bet doesn't have to dial 970).
With his colonialist guile and skills he acquired from Mapai, the precursor to Labor, Ariel Sharon removed the settlers from the Gaza Strip. Via another form of domination, he tried to cut the enclave off for good from the West Bank. The effective control of the sea, air, borders and much of Gaza remains in Israel's hands.
And yes, Hamas and Fatah, motivated by their factional struggle, have significantly contributed to the disconnect between the two parts. With its propaganda, Hamas has bolstered the illusion of Gaza's "independence."
Meanwhile, Israel still controls the population registry for Gaza and the West Bank. Every Palestinian newborn in Gaza or the West Bank must be registered with the Israeli Interior Ministry (via the Coordination and Liaison Administration) to be able to obtain an ID card at age 16.
The information typed into the cards is also in Hebrew. Have you ever heard of an independent state whose people must register in the "neighboring" (occupying and attacking) state — otherwise they won't have documents and won't officially exist?
When experts like Giora Eiland, a retired general who helped plan the Gaza disengagement, say Gaza is an independent state that's attacking us, they're trying to expunge the context of this round of bloodshed. That's a pretty easy task. Israelis have already done this.
"Self-defense" Both sides (Hamas and Israel) say they are firing in self-defense. We know that war is a continuation of politics by other means. Israel's policy is clear (if not to consumers of Israeli media): Cut Gaza off even more, thwart any possibility of Palestinian unity and divert attention from the accelerating colonialist drive in the West Bank.
And Hamas? It wants to boost its standing as a resistance movement after the blows it took as a governing movement. Maybe it really thinks it can change the Palestinian leadership's entire strategy vis-a-vis the Israeli occupation. Maybe it wants the world (and the Arab states) to awaken from its slumber.
Still, with all due respect to Clausewitz, rational calculations are not the only explanation. Let's not forget the missile envy — whose is bigger, longer, more impressive and reaches farther? The boys play with their toys and we've gotten used to calling it policy.
"Israel has shown restraint." Where does one begin to calculate restraint? Why not start with the fishermen who have been shot at, wounded and sometimes killed by the Israeli navy, even though the 2012 understandings talked about expanding the fishing zone?
Why not with the farmers and metal scavengers near the separation barrier who have no other income and are shot at and sometimes wounded and killed by soldiers? Or the demolition of Palestinian houses supposedly for administrative reasons in the West Bank and Jerusalem?
Don't we call this restraint because this is violence that the Israeli media arrogantly overlooks? And why don't we hear about the Palestinian restraint after Nadim Nawara and Mohammed Abu Dhaher were killed by Israeli soldiers at the Ofer checkpoint? "Restraint" is another term that expunges contexts and bolsters the sense of victimhood of the world's fourth-mightiest military power.
"Israel supplies water, electricity, food and medicine to Gaza." It does not. It sells 120 megawatts of electricity at full price, at most a third of demand. The bill is deducted from the customs fees that Israel collects for goods passing through its ports destined for the occupied territories. Food and medicine that Palestinian traders buy at full price enter Gaza through the crossings under Israel's control.
According to the Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, in 2012, 1.3 billion shekels ($379 million) worth of Israeli products were purchased in the Gaza Strip. So Gaza is also a captive market for Israel.
As for water, Israel has imposed an autarchic water economy on Gaza; that is, Gazans must make do with rainwater and groundwater that collects in its territory. Israel, which imposes a water quota on the Palestinians, does not let them share the West Bank's water sources with Gaza.
As a result, demand outstrips supply and there is over-pumping. Seawater seeps into the groundwater, as does sewage from decrepit pipelines. Ninety-five percent of Gaza's water is not fit for drinking. And based on past agreements, Israel sells 5 million cubic meters of water to Gaza (a drop in the ocean).
"Israel only pinpoints legitimate targets." The houses of junior and senior Hamas members are being bombed — with and without children there — and the army says these are legitimate targets? Is there a Jewish home in Israel that does not shelter a commander who has helped plan or wage an offensive? Or a soldier who hasn't shot at or will shoot at a Palestinian?
"Hamas uses the population as human shields." If I'm not mistaken, the Defense Ministry is in the heart of Tel Aviv, as is the army's main "war room." And what about the military training base at Glilot, near the big mall? And the Shin Bet headquarters in Jerusalem, on the edge of a residential neighborhood?
And how far is our "sewing factory" in Dimona from residential areas? Why is it all right for us and not for them? Just because they don't have the phallic ability to bomb these places?
There are moral red lines. Why do we keep crossing them?
I only knew Gaza from the stories. It was the military zone for which the Givate Brigade was responsible, but we all knew the stories about how they managed to kill several militants in one ambush. Honestly, we were a bit jealous. I was drafted into the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at the end of the Second Intifada into a special operations unit of the paratrooper brigade. From the start of my service I knew that Nablus and Jenin would be the areas for which we were responsible. Child's play, seemingly, compared to the stories that came out of Gaza – but my child's play. I'll never forget the first time that I was shot at, the first Palestinian corpse I ever saw, and the fear and adrenaline during my first military operation.
My first mission involved the seizure of a Palestinian home. I had never before had the opportunity to be inside a Palestinian home, and my squad was surprised for a moment by the fact that within the home lived an entire family – spanning three generations. We woke everyone up, and took over the house. We put everyone in one room – women, men, children, and the elderly. One of the guys was stationed at the door to ensure that they didn't get out. In the meantime, we took care of our business. I remember asking myself: what do they think about all of this? What would I do if soldiers broke into my home? But I immediately repressed these questions and carried on with the mission. As time passed, fear turned into boredom, adrenaline stabilized, and my doubts about the extent of the operational logic and its justification would return to gnaw at me. But the next day there were already new operations. This was our daily routine, and as a result, the next time I didn't really think about how the family whose home we entered felt. My personal red moral line blurred very quickly. Every time I would tell myself – this is still okay. But it's in the nature of red lines to move along an imaginary scale. I wasn't bothered when we destroyed entire homes during search operations, and when my squad accidentally shot an innocent woman, and we quickly buried the incident and moved on. Today I know that my ability to distinguish whether a particular action crosses the line, didn't really exist back then.
What happened to me is happening to the IDF and to Israeli society at large. During Operation Cast Lead I had been a civilian active with Breaking the Silence for over a year, but I was still shocked by the incidents I heard had occurred there. I remember a friend who had taken part in Cast Lead. He returned shaken by the fact that homes of "Hamas members" were deemed legitimate targets for bombing without any relation to the risk they posed to our soldiers in the field. That was the first time he had encountered such orders during his military service. This is what he testified:
“In the morning we identified four men, aged 25 – 40, with keffiyehs, standing outside the house talking. It was suspect. We reported it to intelligence, specifying the house they were about to enter. Intelligence passed this on to the Shabak (Israeli Security Agency) who reported that this was known as a Hamas activist's house. This is automatically acted upon. I don't remember what we used – whether it was a helicopter or something else, but the house was bombed while these guys were inside. A woman ran out of the house holding a child, and escaped southward. That is to say, there had been innocent people inside.”
The same red line that was crossed during Operation Cast Lead has become the starting line for Operation Protective Edge. Homes of "Hamas members" were added to the IDF's long list of potential targets in the Gaza Strip.
The politicians that send us to perform these tasks don't even pretend to promise hope for a better future. Just further use of force and violence. Our doubts about logic and justice don't even interest us anymore, as our red moral lines are constantly moving in the face of our reality – much like mine during my military service. 150 killed in Gaza in the first six days of the operation, the vast majority of whom were civilians, and a quarter of whom were children. Millions of Israeli and Palestinian people live in existential fear that a rocket or a missile will fall on their heads. The end of one bout of violence merely sets an alarm for the next.
The red line at which we stopped during Operation Cast Lead (2009), is the same line from which we commenced Operation Pillar of Defense (2011). The point at which we stopped during Pillar of Defense is the same place from which we've started Protective Edge. What will our next red line be? And when will we cross that one too? Only we can answer that question. It depends on us, and what we allow others to do in our name.
Avner Gvaryahu served in the IDF as a sergeant in special forces from November 2004-November, 2007
The humanitarian catastrophe resulting from Israel's latest killing spree in Gaza should weigh heavily on the conscience of US citizens, given that Israel remains the largest recipient of US foreign aid, to the tune of 3 billion dollars a year.
According to Reuters, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has now dropped bombs on over 1,000 targets across what has been deemed the world's largest open-air prison. Scenes of extreme suffering and loss abound, like that in the town of Khan Younis, where a house filled with civilians was bombed, or the missile that leveled Gaza's police headquarters, killing 18 members of one family.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) observed "Israeli warplanes launched 39 airstrikes targeting houses, agricultural plots, open areas, a charity and a bank in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis." Furthermore, "Israeli tanks and gunboats … fired dozens of shells at agricultural and open areas," killing "9 Palestinian civilians, including 2 women …" PCHR also documents that 149 houses in Gaza have been "targeted and destroyed."
These outbursts of state terror are so periodic and unceasing, it's difficult to express the gravity of the situation. Much like the previous large-scale Israeli military assault on Gaza in 2012 called 'Operation Pillar of Defense', 'Operation Protective Edge' has unleashed horrifying levels of violence against Palestinian civilians. Doctors on the ground are now reporting that Israel is using weapons against Gazans which have beenbanned under international law, "[causing] major damage to [their] bodies, especially the limbs." Responding to this gruesome development, Palestinian Health Ministry Undersecretary Youssef Abo al-Rish condemned "Israel's use of internationally banned weapons" as "a blatant violation of human rights and international agreements."
Compounded with the devastating human toll this savagery has spawned is a media narrative that all but ensures it will continue. Both television and print media repeatedly cast Israel as merely "defending itself" or "retaliating" against Hamas rockets. Writing in the Boston Globe, Chairman of the Anti Defamation League Jeff Robbins notes "Those who have been fortunate enough not to have endured rockets aimed at their homes can be counted upon to issue the familiar incantations about Israeli 'collective punishment,' dodging as always the question of what, precisely, Israel is supposed to do about attacks against its civilians if not to try to prevent them."
Ignored in this callous dismissal of Israeli war crimes is the fact that the people of Gaza are under a foreign military occupation in violation of international humanitarian law and multiple UN Security Council Resolutions. That this brutal occupation may be the source of the rocketing is untouched in the corporate press. Instead, American audiences are presented with a de-contextualized narrative of a cycle of violence from both sides, accompanied, almost invariably, by vague and insincere demands for a de-escalation of the conflict.
If the vast disparity in firepower between Hamas and the IDF doesn't illustrate the specious framing, then the death toll certainly does. Since the beginning of Israel's assault, 170 Palestinians have been killed and over 1,120 have been injured according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Based on figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "70 percent of Gaza fatalities are civilians," and of that number, "30 percent are children." Conversely, zero Israelis have been killed. Nonetheless, the western authors of this mass slaughter are unrestrained in their exuberance, foremost the "leader of the free world."
In his July 8 Op-Ed in Haaretz, President Obama celebrated the growing "security relationship" between the US and Israel, a bond that is "stronger than ever." Perhaps the "strength" of this bond can be measured in the overwhelming silence and distortion that has greeted this latest chapter in the Palestinian people's long record of national humiliation. So when ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer misidentifies Palestinian civilians devastated by IAF airstrikes as Israelis, a simple one minute apology to American viewers (not to the people of Gaza) suffices.
Any deeper investigation into the dominant narratives of Palestinian villainy that have long characterized US media discourse is forbidden. For example, the New York Times will issue no apology for featuring a front page photograph of a masked Palestinian slinging a stone alongside an article about the brutal lynching of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khadeir. Unlike Sawyer's "mistake", misrepresentations of this kind are the norm, and therefore merit no apologies. These images are illustrative of Palestinian menace or an ominous "demographic problem" pensively waiting to destroy an Israeli state–an island of civilization in a "tough neighborhood"–"forced to take action to protect its civilians." Rhetoric of this kind is highly reminiscent of the US genocide against North America's indigenous population, which was carried out to "protect" the European colonists from the "terror" of "merciless Indian savages," as Thomas Jefferson described them in one of his lesser known contributions to "enlightenment" philosophy.
Incidentally, the traditional imperial pretext of "protecting civilians" has been stretched to surreal dimensions under the current offensive. Among the "military" targets selected in this campaign to "protect" Israelis are beach-side cafes, mosques, and rehabilitation centers. The New York Times headlined the attack on the beach-side cafe as follows: Missile at Beachside Gaza Cafe Finds Patrons Poised for World Cup (my emphasis). It would be instructive to observe the response within the US if the terrorist attack against innocent civilians at the Boston Marathon was headlined Exploding Pressure Cooker Finds Athletes Poised for Boston Marathon. Needless to say, more than a simple "correction" would be demanded.
Underlying these socially sanctioned exhibitions of dehumanization is a doctrine of state violence which was articulated most powerfully by Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion. In a shockingly unambiguous entry in his Independence War Diary he noted "Blowing up a house is not enough. What is necessary is cruel and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place and casualties. If we know the family–[we must] strike mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise the reaction is inefficient. At the place of action there is no need to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent." Under 'Operation Protective Edge', the Israeli military has adhered to this pernicious doctrine with a frightening degree of discipline.
Overshadowing this record of atrocities is the inescapable fact that the United States is complicit in the killing of every innocent Palestinian under Israeli occupation, a reality systematically omitted from conventional narratives. A particularly dramatic illustration of this norm could be perceived in a recent State Dept. press conference. After establishing the dogma that Palestinians had no "right to defend themselves", State Dept. spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked what Washington would do to pressure Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to "rein in" Hamas.
Since Hamas and the PA formed a "unity government", the journalist protested, Abbas certainly shared "responsibility" for the Hamas rocketing into Israel. Another question could have easily been asked, namely what was the Obama administration going to do to "rein in" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Critical inquiry of this kind is inconceivable in US establishment journalistic circles. Consequently, the leader of the "only democracy in the Middle East" (typical language in imperial societies that lack self-reflection, the US being a dramatic example) can launch missiles at unprotected civilian structures–murdering the elderly, women, and children–and the best headline Human Rights Watch can produce to capture the tragedy is Palestine/Israel: Indiscriminate Palestinian Rocket Attacks. On the IAF airstrikes on houses? They "appear to be" collective punishment.
At a recent Palestine solidarity rally, author and activist Max Blumenthal proclaimed"This is not a conflict. It is a conquest. It is an illegal conquest." Beyond the highly misleading, and often racist, commentary that prevails in the establishment press, this is arguably the most succinct description of Israel's ongoing war against Palestinians. Much like the global conquerors in Washington, the regional conquerors in the Israeli government interpret any expression of autonomy by those over whom they rule as not only threatening but criminal. It is through this perverse logic that the systematic subjugation of an entire people is made to look virtuous or, to borrow Benjamin Netanyahu's words in reference to its threats against Iran, "those in the international community … don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel." Throughout history, all oppressive states have imbibed this psychotic worldview, some in more lethal doses than others. One shudders at the thought of future servants of empire retelling this chronology of suffering and the monstrosities they will inevitably conceal in the name of "freedom".
You would be forgiven for thinking that the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza strip is an unfortunate necessity for the Zionist state; that Hamas holds full responsibility for the dead and the wounded; and that Israel is merely “responding” to Palestinian aggression, simply defending itself with no interest in escalating the conflict. You would be forgiven because, although it is an inaccurate and biased narrative, it is the only narrative you will hear in the mainstream media.
Yousef Munayyer, Executive Director of the Jerusalem Fund, a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC, has explained why this is not the only narrative by examining data about all the ceasefire violations on either side since the last Egyptian-brokered deal agreed by Israel and Hamas on 21 November 2012, which brought to an end Israel’s so-called “Operation Pillar of Defence”. The terms of the agreement included “ending all hostilities by Israelis and Palestinians, and facilitating the freedom of movement and transfer of goods within Gaza.”
Within 24 hours, Israel explicitly violated the conditions of the ceasefire when its armed forces shot dead a Palestinian man east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip; 19 others were wounded in the incident.
Meanwhile, Israel’s promise to facilitate freedom of movement and the transfer of goods within Gaza has been reneged upon continuously since the signing of the truce.
This follows a familiar pattern in which a previous ceasefire agreement, brokered by Egypt in 2008, was ended by Israel’s extrajudicial assassinations of Palestinians.
Below is a graph, provided by the Jerusalem Fund, detailing the dynamics of fire over a 54-week period following the last ceasefire. All numbers are taken from UN OCHA. From a quick look at the data on weekly violations throughout the year following the 2012 ceasefire, we can see that Palestinian rocket fire has been infrequent and isolated, almost always occurring “after successive instances of Israeli ceasefire violations.”
Yet, as former editor of antiwar.com John Glaser mentions, “In the diplomacy on Mid-East peace, we invariably hear about Israel’s security concerns, while that of the Palestinians is hardly mentioned.” This is in spite of overwhelming evidence pointing to the constant military aggression inflicted upon the Palestinian population by Israel, an inherent element of both the siege on Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In accordance with Glaser’s observation, just 17 of the nearly 120 Israeli ceasefire violations over one year following the 2012 ceasefire were reported on by the New York Times. This extensive under-reporting of Israeli ceasefire violations points to the immunity Israel enjoys in the West, and the incentive this provides Israel to continue to violate ceasefire agreements. Israeli forces can then “fire into Gaza without accountability, provoke a reaction and then claim self-defence.”
Drawing on visual graphics provided by the Jerusalem Fund displayed below, depicting the relation between Palestinian casualties caused by Israeli fire and Palestinian projectile fire, the organisation makes some important observations:
[...] the various resistance factions in Gaza are restraining themselves and are not responding to every Israeli escalation. However, when extrajudicial assassinations of members of militant factions outside of Hamas like the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) and Islamic Jihad are conducted, the factions then respond as was the case in points 3 and 7.
This leads to the following conclusion: “Israeli policies of extrajudicial assassination which ultimately create high Palestinian casualties and provoke projectiles from Gaza are self-defeating if the goal is to minimize projectile fire.”
Why, then, does Israel continue to carry out extrajudicial assassinations in moments of relative calm such as that of unarmed PFLP member Muataz Washaha in the West Bank university town of Birzeit on 27 February 2014, in which his family’s home was set alight and demolished? More importantly, why are such cases not covered in equal measure to the rare and isolated cases of Palestinian resistance rocket fire which, when they are not intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, do little, if any, damage?
Whilst Hamas’s ceasefire conditions, listed below, were declared publicly on Palestinian television live on 8 July 2014 by an anonymous leader of the Qassam Brigades, they received no coverage in the western media. Subsequently, it came as no surprise when Netanyahu addressed the cabinet 2 days later with a unilateral rejection of any appeals for a ceasefire. When world powers are repeating the now auto-response, “We support Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian fire”, why should Israel bother to address the underlying causes of hostility from militarised factions of the Palestinian resistance?
Hamas ceasefire conditions:
To end aggression against Jerusalem, the West Bank and “Israeli Arabs”.
To release all prisoners agreed upon in the Gil’ad Shalit deal.
To commit to previously agreed upon ceasefire conditions.
To refrain from intervening in the Accord Government and sabotaging Palestinian reconciliation.
Writing earlier this year, Mounayyer predicted accurately the grave consequences of media misrepresentations of the Israel-Palestine conflict, detailing a reality we are currently witnessing:
If another massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza began, Israel would surely use the pretext of “self-defence” to fend off any international criticism and the mainstream media’s failure to cover these cease-fire violations would have provided and supported the Israeli narrative needed to make war.
It is now crucial more than ever that western media acknowledges the critical role it plays in framing the Palestine-Israel conflict in the West and in shaping the trajectory of the conflict on the ground. The findings of the Jerusalem Fund ceasefire violations catalogue, highlight the moral duty that journalists bear to cover both Palestinian and Israeli aggression, and ensure that Israeli violations are given equal exposure. Only then, when Israel feels that there are real consequences for violating ceasefire agreements and international law, will Hamas’s third condition, for Israel to commit to previous agreements, will there be any real hope of peace.
Recent political unrest in parts of the Middle East has led many Western analysts to question the compatibility of Islam with democracy, but Indonesia—the world’s most populous Muslim country—is looking to tell a different story, the next chapter of which begins this week.
An important country about which most Americans know little, Indonesia is the world’s third-largest democracy, after India and the United States, and the tenth-largest economy. In recent years, it has enjoyed high growth, low inflation, an extremely low debt-to-GDP ratio, a strong stock market, and record-breaking exports and foreign direct investment.
Indonesia’s economic success has been built on the back of its even more impressive democratic development. In just a few years, after the fall of longtime strongman Suharto in 1998, the country transitioned from a tightly controlled authoritarian system to one of the most vibrant democracies on earth. Through three successive cycles of democratic elections—in 1999, 2004, and 2009—Indonesia has been hailed as a model of an open, moderate, tolerant, multiethnic, and multireligious society.
Presidential elections in Indonesia are among the most free in the world, with a “one man, one vote” system that is not intermediated by an electoral college, as in the United States. Indonesians have embraced this freedom with great fanfare over the past fifteen years. In Indonesia’s first democratic election, in 1999, more than 93 percent of its roughly 150 million voters participated. I had the privilege of monitoring that first election, which was broadly praised as free, fair, nonviolent, and well run, despite the absence of any democratic traditions in the country since the 1950s. While some of the initial euphoria about elections declined in subsequent contests, voter participation has remained above 70 percent in every cycle.
This week, Indonesians are set to test and, hopefully, build on that record as they choose a new president in the most hotly contested race in the country’s history. The race is a nail-biter, with the candidates polling within several points of each other—in some polls, within the margin of error and with a margin smaller than the number of undecided voters. The uncertainty of the outcome has left both the people of Indonesia and its markets on edge.
This is the first time that the incumbent is term-limited. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has served two five-year terms and cannot run again due to constitutional reforms. His party, moreover, did not win enough seats in the April legislative elections to field a candidate for the presidential race. For the first time in Indonesian history, the party in power is not fielding a candidate for the top job.
This election is also the first head-to-head contest, with the popular governor of Jakarta, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, running against the charismatic former commander of the Indonesian special forces and former Suharto son-in-law, Prabowo Subianto. In all previous election cycles, three or more contenders have vied for the presidency.
The race has forced the candidates to make clear distinctions between each other and led the other parties that won seats in the incoming legislature to quickly choose sides. With four of the five Islam-based parties supporting Prabowo, his coalition is perceived as more Islamic, while the coalition backing Jokowi is perceived as more secular and nationalist.
This divide dates back to the founding of the Indonesian state, when leaders of the struggle against the Dutch colonial power were writing a constitution in preparation for their declaration of independence. One of the primary debates among the independence leaders was whether the new state should be Islamic or essentially secular, but rooted in God. Those in favor of the latter won the day, arguing that the archipelago’s ethnic and religious diversity demanded an open paradigm that defined the state as broadly as possible.
There is some overlap between the two coalitions, with the secular-nationalist Golkar party backing Prabowo, and the Islam-based National Awakening Party (PKB) backing the Jakarta governor, for example. But the relatively defined character of each coalition has given Indonesian voters a clearer choice than in past elections and should be healthy for the consolidation of the country’s democracy.
The personalities of the two candidates could not be further apart. Jokowi is a largely untested, understated, and untainted “man of the people,” beloved for his integrity and inclusiveness by Indonesia’s poor and lower middle class. Prabowo is a self-styled strongman with compelling oratory skills and a record of military experience that appeals to the upper-middle and upper classes, which yearn for strong leadership after a decade under Yudhoyono. Prabowo has been dogged by allegations of human rights abuses during his military career, including the torture and disappearance of protesters during the turmoil that brought down his father-in-law and violent suppression of dissent in hot spots like West Papua and East Timor, a former province that is now an independent state. Indonesians, however, have famously short memories, and with more than half the country under the age of thirty, few voters either know or care much about Prabowo’s dark past.
In recent months, Prabowo has closed the gap with the Jakarta governor, who was leading by as many as 30 percentage points. While this heated competition is in many ways a good thing for Indonesian democracy, it has also unleashed a dark side of Indonesian politics, with a raft of smear campaigns, largely against Jokowi, flooding social media—Indonesia has the second-largest Facebook community in the world, after the United States—and tabloids. They have accused Jokowi of being everything from Chinese and non-Muslim to a communist. While none are true, the ferocity and relentlessness with which these charges have circulated have hurt the governor in a country that is still overwhelmingly Muslim and anticommunist.
More importantly, these campaigns have brought race and religion to the fore in an ugly and highly divisive manner, a real concern for a country of such diversity and one that has a history of ethnic and religious violence. Indeed, the role of media in this campaign has been more controversial than at any time in the past, with outlets owned by businessmen aligned with one ticket or the other providing highly partisan coverage and undermining Indonesia’s reputation for a free, independent, and neutral press.
This race is not only the tightest in Indonesia’s democratic history; it’s also widely seen as the dirtiest, raising fears of a close outcome—perhaps with a margin of less than 2 percent—that could get bogged down in court challenges and even give way to violence. Passions are running high across the country. Some reports suggest that minorities are afraid to vote and that a climate of intimidation exists in some of the most contested areas.
Indonesia has achieved great things over the course of its fifteen-year experiment with democracy, but the ugliness of this race reminds us that such progress cannot be taken for granted. At a time when political restructuring in the Middle East continues to challenge the notion that Islam and democracy can coexist, and when pluralism and tolerance are under attack around the world, Indonesians hope to rise above these provocations and cement the country’s place as a vibrant Muslim-majority democracy.
Akar umbi tiada pilihan kerana parti terutama pihak JPP ,Lembaga Disiplin dan sebahagian besar anggota dlm Biro Politik dan Mpp telah gagal dlm tanggungjawabnya bagi memastikan demokrasi dan integriti parti dipertahankan.
Jalan didepan yang ada bukan keluar dari parti tetapi menyerang mrk yg mempergunakan parti demi kepentingan mrk sendiri.
Saya difahamkan bahawa saudara Arijan akan membuat lapuran ke ROS petang ini. Ini satu lagi breaking news. Maknanya akar umbi tidak yakin dgn ketelusan dan integriti pimpinan parti.
Sya percaya ini langkah terakhir akar umbi utk selamatkan parti dari kerakusan pimpinan kanan dan penyokongnya.
SHAH ALAM – Kepimpinan Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim terus menerima asakan pengunduran bertubi-tubi daripada sekutunya yang secara terang-terangan tidak berpuas hati dengan cara pemerintahan beliau.
Senario PR ketika ini ialah sedang mengumpul suara dari akar umbi setiap cabang parti termasuk Adun dan Ahli Parlimen untuk dibawa ke peringkat pimpinan pusat seterusnya memuktamadkan status menteri besar itu.
Adun Batu Caves (PKR), Amirudin Shari berkata, penilaian corak pemerintahan Abdul Khalid sedang ditimbang tara berdasarkan beberapa kepincangan dan kelemahan yang dihadapi kerajaan negeri dalam tempoh mutakhir ini.
"Buat masa ini komponen PR sedang berbincang keperluan pengunduran Abdul Khalid bermula dari akar umbi sebelum koleksi pandangan berkenaan dibawa ke peringkat tertinggi untuk diputuskan sama ada kekal atau diturunkan.
"Isu pertukaran ini perlu dibuat berhati-hati kerana ia melibatkan banyak perkara membabitkan hal pembangunan, urusan pentadbiran negeri termasuk strategi berkesan berdepan PRU14 nanti," katanya kepada Sinar Harian, semalam.
Amirudin memberi bayangan seolah-olah pengunduran Abdul Khalid itu perlu dilakukan tetapi keputusan besar itu wajar ditimbang tara secara teliti kerana setiap perubahan drastik memerlukan penyesuaian terbaik.
Katanya, pertukaran itu perlu tapi banyak penyesuaian baharu harus difikirkan.
"Kita takut salah pandang jika tergesa-gesa dan ia mendatangkan risiko PR pada Pilihan raya Umum ke -14 akan datang. "Adun dan ahli parlimen sedang bincang termasuk juga akar umbi sama ada penentuan kekal atau tidak. Ia dalam proses dan tak perlu tergesa-gesa kerana banyak perkara wajar dipertimbangkan masak-masak, gesaan saya cuma keputusan ini perlu dibuat," katanya.
Kelmarin, Ketua Umum PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim menegaskan perbincangan tertutup berhubung kedudukan menteri besar itu dibuat secara tertutup dan persefahaman telah dicapai bagaimanapun langkah itu tidak dilakukan secara tergesa-gesa.
Ditanya mengenai calon gantian yang bakal mengambil alih tampuk pemerintahan Selangor sekiranya pengunduran ini terlaksana, beliau hanya memaklumkan antara nama yang dicanang ialah Mohamed Azmin Ali dan Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail manakala Pas juga ada calon mereka.
Sementara itu, Adun Hulu Klang (Pas), Saari Sungib turut memberi respons sama malah beliau menegaskan kemelut pertukaran menteri besar ini bukan perkara baharu malah ia dicetuskan sejak pengenalan Langkah Kajang.
"Pelbagai pandangan telah didengar, oleh itu tunggu saja keputusan daripada pusat untuk muktamadkan pertukaran kerusi menteri besar ini.
"Lagipun benda itu dah jadi isu sejak Langkah Kajang tetapi tiada keputusan muktamad. Sekarang bincang peringkat akar umbi dan akan dibawa ke peringkat pusat untuk diputuskan," katanya.
Dalam pada itu, Adun Sekinchan (DAP), Ng Suee Lim berkata, sebagai Adun terpaksa akur dengan keputusan kepimpinan parti yang dibincangkan bersama Majlis Pimpinan PR.
SEREMBAN 13 Julai 2014- Seorang bapa, Mohd. Azzian Basin, 43, mendakwa anak lelakinya yang berusia 17 tahun dipukul oleh sekumpulan remaja di sebuah rumah kedai bertingkat yang terbengkalai di Bandar Seremban Selatan, Sungai Gadut dekat sini, Khamis lalu.
Beliau yang juga seorang Penghulu mendakwa, anaknya, Mohd. Nadzmi Aqiff mengalami sakit di bahagian dada dan tangan kanan serta bengkak di pipi sebelah kiri akibat kejadian yang berlaku pada kira-kira pukul 9.30 malam itu.
Katanya, anaknya yang juga pelajar di Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seremban Jaya 2, sedang menaiki motosikal menuju ke sebuah stesen minyak di Taman Seremban Jaya sebelum dia ditahan dalam perjalanan oleh sekumpulan sembilan remaja yang menaiki lima motosikal.
"Mereka kemudian bertindak memukul anak saya sebelum memaksa dia menaiki satu daripada motosikal mereka dan membawanya ke sebuah rumah kedai bertingkat yang terbengkalai di situ.
"Anak saya sekali lagi ditumbuk dan ditendang oleh tiga daripada mereka sebaik sampai di situ.
"Malah, seorang daripada mereka telah mengeluarkan sebilah pisau dan mengugut untuk membunuh anak saya. Anak saya kata dia tidak tahu apakah motif kumpulan remaja itu berbuat demikian," katanya ketika ditemui di rumahnya di Bandar Seremban Selatan, dekat sini hari ini.
Kenyataan dan Pendirian Rasmi PACE: Pelaburan berjumlah RM1 bilion oleh Syarikat Coca Cola di Malaysia.
PACE merakamkan rasa dukacita terhadap pelaburan berjumlah RM1 bilion oleh Syarikat Coca-Cola di Malaysia. Syarikat Coca-cola akan mendirikan kilangnya di atas tanah yang dibeli daripada TH (Tabung Haji) Properties di Nilai, Negeri Sembilan dan upacara pecahtanahnya telah disempurnakan oleh YAB Perdana Menteri, Dato' Seri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Hj Abdul Razak pada 15 Mac 2010.
Lebih meresahkan lagi perkembangan ini berlaku di saat-saat Masjid al-Aqsa dikepung dan pihak Zionis Israel terus mengancam keselamatan Masjid al-Aqsa dengan mengumumkan perasmian kuil Hover di persekitaran kejiranan Masjid. Tindakan regim Zionis ini jelas merupakan provokasi terancang sedang di masa yang sama rakyat Palestin di bawah umur 50 tahun dihalang dari memasuki masjid al-Aqsa yang berada beberapa ratus meter sahaja dari kuil tersebut.
Mungkin orang ramai akan bertanya apa hubungkait di antara pembukaan kilang Coca-cola di Malaysia dengan ketegangan yang berlaku di Baitul Maqdis timur dan di Masjid al-Aqsa. Dua perkembangan ini saling berkaitan kerana Syarikat Coca-cola telah dikenal pasti sebagai penyokong kuat kepada ekonomi Israel dan kewujudan entiti haram Yahudi Zionis yang merampas negara Palestin dan mengusir rakyatnya keluar. Sebagai sebuah negara yang merdeka dan berdaulat, Malaysia berhak untuk menentukan dasar dan pendiriannya tanpa di pengaruhi oleh mana-mana pihak yang berkepentingan. Namun Malaysia telah mempertahankan dasar luar yang konsisten terhadap penubuhan negara haram Israel sejak mencapai kemerdekaan iaitu tidak akan mengiktiraf entiti haram tersebut, meskipun Israel adalah negara anggota penuh PBB. Berdasarkan kepada hakikat ini, tindakan membenarkan Syarikat Coca-cola melabur dan membina kilang pembotolan produk minumannya di sini adalah sesuatu yang bercanggah dengan prinsip yang dipertahankan sekian lama. Oleh kerana Syarikat Coca-cola menyokong ekonomi Israel secara terbuka maka mereka bersekongkol dengan regim Zionis yang tidak diiktiraf oleh Kerajaan Malaysia. Membenarkan kilang syarikat Coca-cola beroperasi di bumi Malaysia boleh memberi implikasi merestui regim Zionis yang bertindak sebagai negara penyangak yang tidak pernah akur kepada undang-undang antarabangsa dan menghormati hak asasi rakyat Palestin.
Sokongan Coca-cola kepada Israel bukanlah berdasarkan dakwaan semata-mata bahkan terdapat dokumentasi lengkap mengenai penglibatan Syarikat Coca-cola di dalam membangunkan ekonomi Israel sejak tahun 1966. Pada tahun 1997, misi ekonomi Kerajaan Israel telah memberi penghargaan kepada Syarikat Coca-cola dalam majlis Penganugerahan Perdagangan Israel atas sokongan berterusan syarikat itu terhadap Israel selama 30 tahun dengan mengabaikan seruan boikot Israel oleh Liga Arab. Pada tahun 2002 Syarikat Coca-cola membuka kilang di atas tanah rakyat Palestin yang dirampas di Kirvat (Qiryat) Gat dalam negara Palestin yang dijajah. Berita ini dilaporkan di dalam akhbar rasmi Israel Haaretz pada 19 Julai 2002. Seperti yang dilaporkan oleh akhbar Ha'aretz pada 18 Oktober 2005, Coca-cola meningkatkan pelaburannya di Israel dengan menguasai 51% saham dalam Tavor Winery, sebuah syarikat pembuat arak di Israel. Ini hanyalah sebahagian dari rekod cemerlang Coca-cola di dalam menyumbang kepada kemakmuran ekonomi Zionis Israel.
Fakta-fakta ini adalah hakikat yang tidak mungkin disanggah tentang betapa eratnya hubungan yang terjalin di antara Syarikat Coca-cola dan entiti haram Israel.
PACE dengan ini mengambil pendirian berikut:
1. PACE memohon agar Kerajaan Malaysia mengkaji semula keputusan untuk membenarkan Syarikat Coca-cola melabur dan membuka kilang operasinya di Malaysia.
2. PACE juga memohon agar TH (Tabung Haji) properties tidak melabur atau terbabit dengan transaksi perniagaan yang meragukan kerana Tabung Haji terlibat secara langsung di dalam menjana pendapatan untuk urusan pengendalian jemaah Haji rakyat Malaysia. PACE mengajak semua pihak supaya prihatin dengan perkara ini kerana secara simboliknya ziarah, umrah dan ibadah haji ke tanah suci Makkatul Mukarramah tidak sewajarnya membawa kepada keruntuhan satu lagi tanah suci, masjid al-Aqsa al-Haram as-Syarif di Baitul Maqdis.
3. PACE menyeru seluruh rakyat Malaysia tanpa mengira keturunan, bangsa dan agama supaya menyahut seruan boikot barangan Israel yang kini sedang berkumandang di seantero dunia. PACE menyokong kempen BDS (Boikot, Divestment and Sanctions - Boikot, pengalihan pelaburan dan sekatan) ke atas Israel yang diterajui oleh VPM (Viva Palestina Malaysia - sebuah koalisi NGO yang menganjurkan kempen boikot ke atas empat produk utama yang menyokong Israel iaitu Coca-cola, McDonald, L'oreal dan Nestle). PACE menyeru seluruh rakyat Malaysia supaya mengutamakan produk tempatan dan hanya membeli produk luar khususnya produk Amerika Syarikat apabila perlu sahaja dan sebagai pilihan yang terakhir.
4. PACE akan terus menyokong Kerajaan Malaysia yang secara konsisten mempertahankan dasar tidak mengiktiraf Israel dan sentiasa peka dengan penderitaan rakyat Palestin dengan membangkitkan hak mereka di pelbagai forum antarabangsa terutama di Persidangan Agung PBB dan OIC.
5. PACE berdoa dan mengharapkan negara Malaysia akan terus dilimpahi dengan rezeki yang melimpah ruah dan penuh keberkatan dari Allah SWT.
Dari FB Ustaz Nor Azman Mohamad (Ketua Pemuda PAS N.Sembilan) : Hari ini ( 13 Julai 2014 ) saya menziarahi 2 buah rumah di Johol. Rumah pertama adalah En Aziz di Kampung Menyolai, Kuala Johol yang menyara hidup dengan memandu van jenazah masjid. Beliau tidak lagi boleh membuat kerja-kerja berat kerana tulang belakang telah dimasukkan besi akibat terjatuh. Beliau menanggung 3 orang anak yang masih bersekolah.
Keluarga kedua adalah En Yahya b Adom dari Kampung Kelomboi, Melekai. Beliau mempunyai 7 orang anak dan 2 darinya adalah OKU. Beliau berkhidmat sebagai pengawal keselamatan di Sekolah Menengah Rendah Agama Johol. Isteri beliau tidak bekerja. Beliau pernah memohon bantuan Baitulmal tetapi dikatakan tidak layak. Sesiapa yang ingin menyumbang salurkan ke akaun beliau
Angkatan Tentera Singapura – Satu Analisa oleh IDC
The Singapore Armed Forces
Apabila Singapura berpisah dari Malaysia pada tahun 1963 dan apabila tentera British mengambil keputusan untuk meninggalkan Timur pada tahun 1965, Lee Kuan Yew meminta bantuan India untuk Angkatan Tenteranya dan Hal Ehwal Luar. India hanya bersetuju untuk membantu dalam bidang Hal Ehwal Luar, bagaimanapun Lt Gen Mattew Thomas kemudian menjadi penasihat tentera pada tahun 70an.
Singapura kemudian meminta bantuan Israel dan kemudian Afrika Selatan dan mengambil pendekatan tentera mengikut cara Khidmat Wajib Swiss. Singapura sekarang mempunyai belanjawan sebanyak $4.5 Billion dollar untuk negara yang mempunyai penduduk hampir tiga juta.
Kejayaan tentera Singapura adalah hasil usaha Lee Kuan Yew dan anaknya Brig Gen Lee Sein Leong yang mengambil alih jawatan Perdana Menteri daripada Goh Chok Tong yang sekarang in Menteri Kanan. Singapura sekarang ini akan mengadakan kerjasama dengan India dalam bidang ketenteraan dengan DRDO, Tentera Laut India dan pada hujung tahun ini latihan bersama IAF. Membuka hubungan dengan negara jiran akan menguntungkan India kerana Singapura telah melabur di India dan ekonomi sedang berkembang.
Admiral Teo Che Hean menerangkan kepada semua pegawai kanan India yang melawat Singapura iaitu hubungan strategik yang kuat adalah penting untuk perniagaan. Tentera Laut India telah mendapat manafaat dengan menghantar kapal-kapalnya ke Singapura dan sekarang mempunyai kekuatan kewangan untuk menghantar kapal mengisi minyak. Artikel berikut yang ditulis oleh Amnon Barzilai menceritakan kepada kita dengan terperinci.
Hubungan Cinta Rahsia, Dalam, Gelap
(Sekumpulan pegawai pertahanan Israel yang digelar 'Mexicans', membantu Singapura menubuhkan tenteranya. Ianya satu permulaan hubungan yang amat istimewa)
Oleh Amnon Barzilai
Krismas, 1965, adalah tarikh tidak rasmi bermulanya hubungan cinta yang hebat antara Israel dan Singapura yang amat dirahsiakan. Media antarabangsa, seperti media Israel cuba menyiarkan kisah ini. Sedikit demi sedikit maklumat dibocorkan, ada yang disiarkan, ada yang dinafikan ada yang diabaikan. Israel, seperti biasa ingin memberitahu rakan-rakan mereka tetapi berjaya mengekang kemahuan tersebut. Mereka takut hubungan tersebut akan berakhir sekiranya ianya diketahui umum. Israel mengenakan sekatan berkenaan kisah ini dan rahsia ini tersimpan. Sehinggalah pihak lagi satu tidak dapat lagi merahsiakannya.
Dalam bukunya, "From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000," yang diterbitkan pada tahun 2000, Lee Kuan Yew, pengasas dan Perdana Menteri pertama Singapura mendedahkan rahsia yang disimpan selama hampir 40 tahun. Hakikatnya Tentera Israel yang telah mengasaskan tentera Singapura. Misi ketenteraan Israel diketuai oleh Yaakov (Jack) Elazari, ketika itu berpangkat kolonel, kemudian dinaik pangkat ke brigadier jeneral. Setelah meninggalkan tentera, beliau menjadi penasihat tentera Singapura. Dia meninggal dunia 15 tahun lalu. "Untuk mengaburi kehadiran mereka, kita gelarkan mereka 'Mexican', menurut Lee Kuan Yew.
Tentera Singapura hari ini adalah yang terkuat dan termoden di Asia Tenggara. Hubungan pertahanan antara Israel dan Singapura bertambah erat dan diperluaskan, dan sekarang ianya meliputi hubungan kerjasama bidang industri ketenteraan. Bidang kerjasama, menurut sumber asing, tentera Singapura adalah merupakan pelanggan utama Israel dalam bidang pertempuran dan teknologi ketenteraan. Industri kapalterbang Singapura bekerjasama dengan Israel dan Elbit Systems untuk menaik taraf pesawat pejuat F-5 Tentera Udara Turki. Beberapa tahun lalu, Menteri Pertahanan Singapura mendedahkan peluru berpandu anti kereta kebal jenis Gil diusahakan dengan kerjasama kedua-dua negara.
Dikelilingi Orang Islam
Lee Kuan Yew menerangkan pentingnya merahsiakan perkara ini pada kawan rapatnya di peringkat pimpinan, dan menteri pertahanan pertama, Dr. Goh Keng Swee. "Kita mesti mempastikan ketibaan Israel tidak diketahui umum, supaya tidak mendatangkan tentangan dari orang Islam yang tinggal di Malaysia dan Singapura" menurut Lee Kuan Yew. Ini adalah masalah Singapura. Penduduk pulau yang kecil ini 670 kilometer persegi (Israel 30 kali lebih luas) majoritinya berbangsa Cina, dan mereka berada diantara dua negara Islam iaitu Malaysia dan Indonesia. Sehingga 1965, Singapura masih lagi sebahagian Malaysia. Pada tahun tersebut British mengambil keputusan untuk keluar dari jajahannya ke timur Terusan Suez. Dalam proses yang pantas Singapura dipisahkan daripada Malaysia.
Singapura mengisytiharkan kemerdekaan pada 9 Ogos 1965. Dan pada masa tersebut ia hanya mempunyai dua rejimen infantri, yang telah ditubuhkan dan diketuai oleh pegawai British. Dua pertiga tenteranya bukannya penduduk Singapura, dan pemimpin mereka tidak yakin dengan kekuatan tenteranya. Menteri Pertahanan, Goh, menghubungi Mordechai Kidron, bekas duta Israel ke Thailand untuk meminta bantuan. Kidron tiba di Singapura dalam beberapa hari bersama Hezi Carmel dari Mossad. "Goh memberitahu kita hanya Israel, negara kecil yang dikelilingi negara umat Islam, dengan tentera yang kuat, boleh membantu mereka membina tentera yang kuat, tentera yang dinamik", menurut Carmel. Kedua-dua orang Israel menemui Lee, yang menulis "beritahu Keng Swee untuk menunggu dulu sehingga Lal Bahadur Shastri, Perdana Menteri India, dan Presiden Nasser dari Mesir membalas surat saya untuk membentuk tentera Singapura".
Adalah tidak pasti samada Lee percaya India dan Mesir mampu atau berminat untuk membentuk tentera Singapura. Ramai Israel percaya ianya adalah taktik semata-mata. Selepas beberapa minggu India dan Mesir mengucapkan tahniah diatas kemerdekaan mereka tetapi tidak menawarkan bantuan ketenteraan. Lee mengarahkan Goh untuk mengubungi terus pegawai Israel.
Pada masa yang sama, sejurus laporan oleh Kidron dan Carmel, pertahanan Israel menghantar bantuan ketenteraan kepada Singapura. Dalam perbincangan yang dikendalikan oleh Ketua Turus Yitzhak Rabin, dengan kehadiran Timbalan Ketua Turus dan Pengarah Bahagian Operasi , Ezer Weizmann, telah diputuskan untuk melantik Major General Rehavam Ze'evi, ketika itu Timbalan Bahagian Operasi, bertanggungjawab untuk membina tentera Singapura. Ze'evi (digelar"Gandhi" ) melawat Singapura secara rahsia dan memulakan persiapan sekembalinya. "Gandhi ingin membentuk tentera Singapura yang ideal, sesuatu yang kita tidak buat disini", menurut Carmel. "Dengan tidak membentuk Kementerian Pertahanan dan Staf Jeneral, Gandhi mencadangkan organisasi bersepadu, struktur yang lebih ekonomi. Jadi tidak akan ada terlalu ramai jeneral dan terlalu sedikit askar biasa"
Ze'evi melantik Elazari, yang bekerja dibawahnya dalam Bahagian Operasi, sebagai mengetuai kumpulan pembentukan. Lieutenant Colonel Yehuda Golan, ketika itu mengetuai divisyen armor (dia bersara dari tentera Israel berpangkat brigadier general), ditambah dalam kumpulan tersebut. Beberapa ahli kumpulan "menumpukan dalam persiapan untuk membina kem tentera", menurut Golan. Pada mulanya mereka mereka menghasilkan buku "Brown Book," berkatian doktrin peperangan, kemudian buku "Blue Book," mengenai pembantukan Kementerian Pertahanan dan badan perisikan. Brown Book telah diterjemah ke Bahasa Inggeris dan dihantar ke kerajaan Singapura. Pada Oktober 1965, perwakilan tentera dari Singapura tiba di Israel.
"Perwakilan tersebut datang untuk memberitahu kita : 'Tahniah, tapi untuk melaksanakan buku ini, awak dijemput datang ke Singapura,'" menurut Golan. Sebelum berlepas, ahli-ahli misi ketenteraan berjumpa Ketua Turus Biro. "Sahabat sekelian," kata Rabin, "Saya ingin memperingatkan beberapa perkara. Pertama, kita bukannya hendak menjadikan Singapura sebagai jajahan Israel. Tugas awak ialah mengajar mereka kerjaya tentera, supaya mereka boleh berdikari menguruskan tentera mereka. Kejayaan awal ialah adalah apabila mereka berjaya menguruskan tentera mereka sendiri. Kedua, awak pergi kesana bukan untuk memberi arahan tetapi memberi nasihat kepada mereka. Dan ketiga, awak semua bukan pedagang senjata. Bila awak membuat nasihat untuk pembelian senjata, gunakan pertimbangan professional ketenteraan. Jangan ambil kira keputusan mereka samada mereka hendak membeli dengan kita atau orang lain".
Bangun Jam 5:30 pagi
Pada 24 Disember 1965, lima bulan selepas Singapura menjadi negara merdeka, enam pegawai pertahanan Israel dan keluarga mereka berlepas untuk misi yang dirahsiakan. "Elazari dan dua pegawai lain menguruskan penubuhan Kementerian Pertahanan." Menurut Golan. "Tugas saya dengan tiga pegawai lain ialah untuk menubuhkan tentera".
Elazari bekerja mengikut beberapa prinsip asas, dimana tidak lari dari kumpulan asal Israell. Pertama untuk membentuk kader komander dan jurulatih tempatan. Kedua , bahan arahan bertulis dibuat oleh kadet yang dilatih sebagai pegawai. Dan ketiga latihan praktikal akan dikendalikan oleh jurulatih Singapura.
"Kita hendak melatih 40-50 orang yang mempunyai pengalaman tentera dan bersedia untuk bekhidmat dalam kerjaya ketenteraan." Golan mengulas. "Kita menyuruh mereka melantik seorang sebagai komander. Sebagai ketua kumpulan, kadet-kadet tersebut melantik seorang berketurunan India Kirpa Ram Vij, yang seterusnya akan menjadi Ketua Turus Tentera. Selama tiga bulan kita berikan kursus intensif."
Kursus pertama ialah format tentera Israel , bangun jam 5.30 pagi, kemas diri, kawad. Latihan bermula jam 7:30 pagi hingga 1 tengahari. "Selepas beberapa hari berlatih, sekumpulan kadet berjumpa saya dan berkata, ' 'Colonel Golan, orang-orang Arab tidak duduk atas kepala kita? Kenapa kita buat kerja gila ini?' Saya panggil Elazari dan beritahu keadaan yang berlaku. Beberapa hari kemudian dia datang bersama Menteri Pertahanan Dr. Goh, dan memberitahu kadet-kadet, `Buat apa yang Colonel Golan suruh , atau tidak awak kena buat dua kali ganda'. Dalam masa yang sama kumpulan pegawai Israel yang lain menyelia pembinaan kem tentera yang pertama berdasakan pelan Kor Jurutera Israel. Pembinaan kem tentera siap dalam masa tiga bulan. Dalam tempoh kurang setahun, kumpulan Israel telah mengendalikan kursus untuk rekrut baru, kursus ketua platun dan kursus pegawai, menurut pelan yang dihantar dari Israel. Seramai 200 komander telah dilatih.
Penganggur Bukannya Tentera
Sebaik sahaja staf komander siap, pasukan tentera mula dibentuk. Israel telah berssedia menubuhkan dua lagi rejimen infantri, mengikut model tentera Israel, setiap rejiman mempunyai tiga kompeni askar raifel, satu kompeni tambahan dan satu kompeni pengurusan – sejumlah 600 tentera. Lieutenant Colonel Moshe Shefi, seorang jurulatih kursus komander kompeni telah dihantar menjadi penasihat. who was an instructor in a company commanders course, was sent as an adviser. "Kami mendapati ada penentangan saikolgi untuk mengambil rekrut di Singapura," katanya. "Dari 10 kerjaya, kerjaya tentera adalah yang terakhir. Pertama ialah artis, kemudian ahli falsafah, kemudian guru dan ahli perniagaan, dan pencuri tempat kesembilan. Kerjaya tentera adalah kerjaya memalukan di Singapura. Di Singapura , rekrut adalah untuk mengatasi pengangguran."
Pegawai Israel mempunyai masalah. Untuk mengelakkan diri , kebanyakan pemuda yang dipilih (usia 18-24 tahun) yang berbangsa Cina menunjukkan bukti mereka telah bekerja. 70 peratus calon adalah penganggur dan berasal dari Malaysia.. Elazari dan Golan mengadu pada Lee dan Goh, tapi perdana menteri bertegas, "saya nak awak latih orang yang paling primitif di negara ini, yang tidak berpelajaran dan menganggur,' kata Lee.
Terkejut, pegawai Israel cuba memujuk Lee untuk memberi pertimbangan, tapi dia bertegas : "Dalam perang dunia kedua, saya lihat tentera British dan tentera Jepun. Semua tentera British bijak dan berpelajaran. Tapi sebagai tentera mereka tak berguna. Tentera British yang primitif menerima arahan dan melaksanakannya, dan mereka tentera yang luar biasa. Hakikatnya tentera Jepun menewaskan tentera British".
Kata Golan, "Yaakov dan saya cuba menerangkan kepada beliau bukan persoalan pelajaran tetapi ialah motivasi. Tentera Jepun bermotivasi kerana mereka berjuang kerana maharaja, yang dianggap sebagai tuhan. Mereka rela berkorban kerana dia. Apa motivasi yang tentera British ada, yang berjuang beribu kilometer dari negara mereka ?" Penjelasan mengenai semangat berjuang dan bagaimana untuk memberikan motivasi telah diterima Lee.
Selain daripada khidmat wajib dan kerjaya tentera, Singapura juga mengambil contoh khidmat simpanan tentera Israel. Setiap tentera yang tamat berkhidmat biasa dikehendakkai berkhidmat lagi 13 tahun, sehingga umur 33 tahun. Sistem untuk mobilasi khidmat ini telah ditubuhkan dan kementerian pertahanan melakasanakan latihan mengejut. Disebabkan saiz yang kecil dan kurang tempat untuk berlatih, Singapura menubuhkan beberapa kem latihan dengan beberapa negara jiran.
Kejutan Kereta Kebal
Kebimbangan serangan tentera Malaysia, dan pergerakan pantas tentera Singapura, memerlukan keperluan tambahan. Dengan kewujudan infantri, pegawai Israel melakukan kajian mendalam pertempuran tentera Jepun di Asia Tenggara semasa perang dunia kedua dan bagaimana mereka berjaya menceroboh Malaysia dan Singapura. Shefi diberi tugas untuk memberikan ceramah mengenai perkara ini kepada kerajaan Singapura.
Dari apa yang dipelajari Israel, perang antara askar Jepun dan British, mereka membentuk tentera laut daripada sampan-sampan. " Bot tesebut dibuat dari kayu yangbaik dan boleh membawa 10 ke 15 orang askar, dan sesuai digunakan di laut dan sungai," kata Golan. "Dalam laut bergelora mereka boleh guna pendayung atau enjin. Kita beritahu Singapura untuk membeli 20 bot dan kita bentuk kem kecil untuk kompeni infantri berlatih melakukan serangan dan mencari arah".
Kolonel bersara Asher Dar berkata, "Kumpulan kedua sampai Singapura dan melaksanakan apa yang Yehuda Golan bentuk sebagai doktrin peperangan. Kita melatih serangan menggunakan bot kecil dan meriam peluru hidup. Bila ketua bahagian latihan , Yitzhak Hofi, melawat Singapura , kita membuat latihan mendarat briged infantri dan menggunakan perahu layar sejauh 12 kilometer."
Penungguan perang enam hari 1967 adalah memeritkan kepada kumpulan Israel di Singapura. "Kami berasa lega Israel tidak tewas jika tidak tentera Singapura akan hilang keyakinan", kata Lee , menurut jurulatih Israel. Pada Januari 1968 , Singapura mengambil keputusan untuk menubuhkan Kor Armor. Dalam penuh kerahsiaan, satu perjanjian ditandatangani untuk membeli 72 buah kereta kebal AMX-13 dari tentera Israel. Ianya satu keputusan yang berani. Malaysia, jiran yang besar, tiada kereta kebal.
Semasa Hari Merdeka, Ogos 1969, kejutan yang amat besar menanti tetamu, termasuk Menteri Pertahanan Malaysia : 30 kereta kebal melakukan lintas hormat. "Ianya mempunyai kesan dramatik", Lee menulis. Malaysia melahirkan kebimbangan. Menteri Pertahanan Singapura cuba memujuk kerajaan Malaysia menyatakan ianya bukanlah tujuan untuk persengketaan.
Selepas kejayaan Israel pada 1967, dinding kerahsiaam mula terbuka. Perwakilan Singapura di Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu tidak mengundi resolusi untuk mengutuk Israel oleh negara Arab. Hubungan diplomatik penuh mula terjalin. Pada Oktober 1968 Lee membenarkan Israel menubuhkan misi perdagangan dan Mei 1969 Singapura membenarkan Israel mendirikan kedutaan. Status misi ketenteraan Israel di Singapura diperkukuhkan, dan diketuai oleh mereka yang berpangkat brigadier jeneral.
Asas Tentera Udara
Kumpulan pegawai Israel yang kecil di Singapura diperkuatkan dengan penasihat tentera dalam pelbagai bidang. Ketua Turus Kor Armor, , Major General Abraham Adan, tiba untuk memberikan nasihat pembelian kenderaan perisai. Pada tahun 1968, Adam Tzivoni, kolonel bersara yang mengetuai bahagian perancangan dan senjata tentera udara, telah dilantik sebagai penasihat Simgapura untuk membentuk tentera udara.
"Sebagai ganti pengeluaran tentera British, kerajaan British memberi Singapura geran sebanyak 50 juta pound untuk membeli pesawat British, helikopter dan peluru berpandu," Tzivoni memberitahu. "British tidak sukakan saya. Tugas saya ialah untuk meluluskan perjanjian. Tetapi nampaknya British ingin menjual senjata tidak berguna kepada Simgapura. Selain perjanjian pembelian Hunter, saya menolak semua perjanjian lain." Dibawah pengawasan Tzivoni, sekolah penerbangan dibentuk di Singapura, juga sekolah teknikal, satu skuadron helikopter Alouette dan meriam anti pesawat 40 mm telah dibeli.
Uzi dan Lagu Kawad Israel
Selepas pembentukan rejiman infantri tentera Singapura, timbul persoalan senjata apa harus digunakan. Pegawai-pegawai mahukan Uzi, sub mesingan Israel. Pegawai Israel menolak cadangan tersebut. Benar, Uzi senjata yang hebat pada tahun 1960, tapi untuk jarak dekat sahaja.
Tentera memerlukan raifel penyerang. Wakil dari tentera Israel menggesa kementerian pertahanan menjual raifel baru Gali. Tapi kumpulan berkenaan berpendapat senjata tersebut belum bersedia lalu mencadangkan M-16 Amerika.
Satu lagi masalah ialah keputusan untuk membeli mortar. Rejimen infantri dilengkapi dengan 60 - 52 mm dan 18 mm mortar (meriam katak). Senjata ini dihasilkan dan dikeluarkan oleh syarikat Soltam di bandar Yokne'am, dijual oleh kementerian pertahanan Israel dan diekspot ke seluruh dunia. "Walaupun kita fikir ini ialah mortar terbaik, kita tidak mencadangkannya sebaliknya menggunakan badan perunding bebas untuk mengambil keputusan," menurut Yehuda Golan.
"Israel menekankan kemahiran ketenteraan dan motivasi yang tinggi. Kepintaran berkawad dan pertunjukan ketenteraan, tentera Singapura tidak pernah belajar dari `Mexicans.' Apa yang tentera Singapura belajar adalah dari pegawai British yang mengetuai dua rejimen infantri yang awal", tulis Lee.
"Motto kita ialah kita tidak akan menyibuk apa yang Singapura boleh buat sendiri," menurut Golan. "Mereka ingin mengatur perbarisan Hari Kemerdekaan mereka sendiri. Kami berkata perbarisan ketenteraan menggambarkan mentaliti negara dan sejarahnya." Singapura tidak menjadikan ia satu isu. Bagaimana pun mereka mempunyai masalah yang memerlukan penyelesaian segera – apa rentak hendak dimainkan ketika tentera sedang berkawad. Ketua misi Israel, , Yaakov Elazari, membawa nota lagu dari Israel dan tentera Singapura berkawad diiringi lagu kawad Israel.
Buku Panduan Pertempuran Hutan
Pihak Singapura mengejutkan pegawai Israel apabila mereka menyatakan mereka perlukan kursus tempur dalam hutan. Singapura cuma ada hutan kecil seluas lima kilometer persegi, tapi negara jiran mempunyai hutan yang besar. Kata Yehuda Golan " : Saya beritahu mereka benar, tapi saya bukanlah orangnya, kerana saya tidak tahu apa-apa perang di hutan." Bagaimanapun pegawai Israel cuba mengatasinya. Keputusan dibuat untuk menghantar dua pegawai Singapura sebagai tetamu tentera Malaysia dalam kursus pertempuran dalam hutan.
"Tiga bulan kemudian, dua pegawai tersebut pulang dengan pengalaman yang diperolehi di Malaysia, dan kami membuat latihan tempur dalam hutan selepas itu," menurut Golan. "Atas dasar ingin tahu, saya juga turut serta. Ianya begitu teruk – jelas mereka diajar cara British ketika perang dunia kedua. Saya mengambil keputusan melatih 10 orang pegawai. Kami memasukki hutan dan memulakan permainan perang. Kami latih bidang pandu arah, membentuk pasukan, menyerang dan mencari. Kita merujuk kepada buku panduan perang Amerika di Vietnam. Kita membangunkan cara pandu arah malam. Kita belajar bagaimana berfungsi sebagai sebuah kompeni tempur dalam hutan tebal. Selepas beberapa minggu latihan, saya menulis buku panduan perang dalam hutan untuk Tentera Singapura".
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Further to our earlier denunciations of the atrocities; we reiterate our condemnation of the latest massacre of more than 100 Palestinians including women and children in the Gaza by the Israeli regime of Netanyahu and call on the international community to collectively put pressure to stop the atrocities.
It is clear that the Israeli regime is exploiting the killing of the three Israeli youths as a pretext to attack Gaza and start a chain of violence and bloodshed so as to destabilize the unity government between Hamas and Fatah.
In his desperate attempts at destroying the prospect of a united Palestinian state in the near future, Netanyahu is prepared to drag the Israeli people to the brink of outright war.
No doubt, he is committing these acts of violence with impunity, emboldened by the fact that neither the United States nor the European Union will condemn these crimes, let alone intervene to stop them.
In this regard, the Western powers have once again displayed hypocrisy in their muted response to the atrocities. This is a disgraceful abdication of moral responsibility and exposes their double standards to the cause of democracy, freedom and justice.
Even more tragic is the fact that Muslim countries, except possibly Turkey and Iran, appear to be powerless in the face of these unmitigated acts of violence and cruelty while so-called jihadists are keener on killing fellow Muslims and proclaiming a caliphate than helping their downtrodden Palestinian kin.
Meanwhile, the Western media continue to report the latest rounds of violence in its usual skewered manner by its constant reference to Hamas firing of missiles into Israel so as to justify Israel's utterly disproportionate retaliation.
The media and Western leaders continue to downplay if not entirely ignore the fundamental issue of the illegal occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and Israel's blatant disregard of UN Resolution 242 in their barefaced drive for territorial aggrandisement.
Indeed, the current round of murdering and wounding of hundreds of innocent Palestinians is but yet another episode of the continuing saga of brutality, ruthlessness, inhumanity, and injustice committed against them by the Israelis.
Anwar Ibrahim Member of Parliament, Parliamentary Opposition Leader Malaysia
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal against his second sodomy conviction and jail sentence should not be rushed through again, his lawyer N. Surendran said today after the Federal Court registrar fixed August 8 for case management.
The PKR vice-president said after walking out from the Federal Court registrar’s chambers, where the court fixed Aug 8 for the case management of Anwar’s appeal and also the prosecution’s cross appeal to enhance his five-year jail sentence.
According to another of Anwar’s lawyers, Ramkarpal Singh, the registrar also set the same date for the case management on Anwar’s application to disqualify Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who was appointed ad hoc deputy public prosecutor to lead Putrajaya’s case to overturn the sodomy acquittal.
On March 7, the Court of Appeal overturned Anwar’s acquittal in 2012 for sodomy and sentenced him to five years’ jail.
Ramkarpal filed an appeal against the conviction on March 10. Anwar is free pending appeal.
Anwar had also made three applications to disqualify Shafee, with the third one pending at the Federal Court.
Surendran told reporters that the indication was that the court wanted to fix the hearing dates by September.
“There should not be any unusual rush to hear the appeal like what happened at the Court of Appeal the last time.
“Dates are fixed when the documentation is done and subject to the availability of the counsel involved,” he said.
According to Surendran, lead defence counsel Sulaiman Abdullah was not well and as such his progress needed to be taken into account before hearing dates could be fixed.
He also called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to drop the charge against Anwar immediately, saying that the attempt to send the country’s Opposition leader to jail was an embarrassment.
“He should withdraw this trumped up and fabricated charge immediately,” Surendran said.
The court has served the full appeals record to Anwar, an indication that are plans to rush through the appeal, Surendran said.
Anwar, who is the Permatang Pauh MP, risks losing his parliamentary seat and could see his political career coming to a premature end should the apex court uphold the Court of Appeal ruling.
Under the Federal Constitution, an elected representative is disqualified from office if fined more than RM2,000 or jailed for a term exceeding one year.
The sodomy punishment under Section 377B of the Penal Code carries a jail term of up to 20 years and the offender shall also liable to whipping.
Anwar was found guilty of sodomising his aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, at an upscale condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.
Trial judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah ruled on January 9, 2012, that he doubted the integrity of samples taken for DNA testing from Saiful as the samples could have been compromised before they reached the chemistry department for analysis.
However, the three-man Court of Appeal bench, led by justice Balia Yusof Wahi, in their oral decision said Zabidin had erred in his findings as the samples were not compromised.
The appellate court ruling, four days before the nomination day for the Kajang by-election, scuttled Anwar’s hopes of becoming the Selangor menteri besar as he was PKR’s candidate for the by-election.
Agak-agaknya berapa ramai guru besar dan guru di Malaysia ini yang sakit mental?
Hukum ikut peraturan
11 Julai 2014
PORT DICKSON – Dua kes membabitkan murid sekolah dicederakan guru dilaporkan berlaku dalam tempoh dua minggu.
Menurut Adun Port Dickson, M Ravi, kejadian itu berlaku disebabkan guru berkenaan tidak mempunyai jiwa sebagai seorang pendidik.
"Kes guru mencederakan murid dilihat sebagai isu besar dan ia perlu ditangani dengan segera.
"Dalam tempoh dua minggu ini sahaja, sebanyak dua kes dilaporkan akibat tindakan guru yang tidak mempunyai jiwa seorang pendidik dalam diri mereka," katanya.
Tambah Ravi, dalam insiden Jumaat lalu, tiga murid lelaki cedera di kaki akibat dipukul dengan penyapu oleh guru di sebuah sekolah di sini.
Namun hari ini (semalam), kita juga mendapat laporan mengenai seorang murid perempuan cedera akibat dibaling kasut oleh guru kerana didakwa bermain ketika guru sedang mengajar.
Tambah Ravi, beliau akan membawa isu berkenaan ke sesi perbahasan di Dewan Undangan Negeri akan datang bagi mengetengahkan isu berkenaan.
Harap PDRM dedahkan maklumat sebenar, kes yang dilaporkan, kes yang tidak dilaporkan, kes cubaan culik agar semua ibu bapa, para penjaga dapat mengambil langkah berjaga-jaga. Mohon kongsi, "SHARE" sebanyak mungkin artikel ini agar semua kita sentiasa berhati-hati. Hanya kepada ALLAH kita mohon perlindungan
Lompat motor elak diculik
Sinar Harian 11 Julai 2014
PARIT BUNTAR - Gerak hati yang merasakan ada sesuatu tidak kena menyelamatkan seorang murid tahun enam daripada diculik selepas nekad melompat daripada motosikal dinaiki bersama seorang lelaki sebelum berjaya melarikan diri dalam satu kejadian di Jalan Sekolah, di sini, Selasa lalu.
Dalam kejadian jam 10 malam itu, mangsa, dikenali Syafiq, 12, sedang mengayuh basikal pulang ke rumah selepas selesai menunaikan solat tarawih di Masjid Permatang Tok Mahat, Jalan Sempadan sebelum dihampiri seorang lelaki.
Syafiq berkata, lelaki berusia lingkungan 20-an menaiki motosikal jenis EX5 itu kemudiannya meminta kanak-kanak berkenaan menunjukkan arah ke Hospital Parit Buntar.
Katanya, lelaki itu juga memujuk menaiki motosikal miliknya bagi memudahkan arah jalan.
"Tanpa ragu-ragu, saya meletakkan basikal di kawasan parkir kenderaan di masjid dan ikut lelaki itu naik motor, dia tak banyak cakap, cuma dalam perjalanan ke hospital tu, dia ada tanya umur saya berapa," katanya ketika ditemui media di kediamannya, semalam.
Syafiq, rasa sangsi timbul apabila lelaki berkenaan tidak menuju ke laluan hospital sebaik menghampiri pintu masuk hospital, sebaliknya melencong ke persimpangan kawasan Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Methodist Parit Buntar.
"Saya menegurnya dan memaklumkan dia salah jalan, sebaliknya lelaki berkenaan terus ke hadapan sambil berkata 'nanti U Turn'.
"Kemudian, saya nampak van putih dengan kelibat dua lelaki sedang menunggu di tepi jalan berhampiran padang sekolah, lagi tambah terkejut bila motor menuju ke arah van itu," katanya.
Dia yang cemas dan takut kemungkinan menjadi mangsa culik nekad melompat daripada motosikal tersebut sebelum terjatuh dan menyebabkan kecederaan di bahagian lutut.
Kalau Najib turun padang tengok nasib gelandangan, Muhyiddin juga perlu turun padang tengok nasib guru yang sakit mental, stress, tertekan, saiko dsbnya, lebih-lebih lagi bulan Ramadhan ini.
Cikgu baling kasut kepada pelajar tahun 2
Sinar Harian 11 Julai 2014
PORT DICKSON - Kelas pendidikan moral sepatutnya mengajar murid-murid tentang budi bahasa. Namun lain jadinya di sebuah sekolah kebangsaan di sini apabila seorang guru yang naik angin didakwa membaling kasut kepada pelajar sehingga cedera ketika mengajar subjek itu.
Kejadian berlaku kira-kira jam 9.30 pagi semalam menyebabkan M Sharmini, 8, murid tahun dua sekolah itu luka di dahi dan menerima tiga jahitan.
Ia berpunca daripada tindakan Sharmini yang bermain di belakang kelas bersama dua rakannya ketika guru terbabit sedang mengajar subjek pendidikan moral.
Berikutan kejadian itu, Muthu membuat laporan di Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah, (IPD) Port Dickson.
Metro 11 Julai 2014 , Kuantan: Berkuat kuasa 1 Julai lalu, Perbadanan Pengurusan Air Pahang (PAIP) mengesahkan pembayaran bil air di kaunter Pos Malaysia Berhad di negeri ini dikenakan caj perkhidmatan sebanyak 70 sen bagi setiap transaksi.
Pegawai Perhubungan Awam PAIP Datuk Jaafar Abdullah berkata, caj perkhidmatan itu bukan daripada PAIP tetapi ia dilakukan oleh Pos Malaysia Berhad jika pemilik akaun menjelaskan bayaran di kaunter Pos Malaysia di seluruh negeri ini.
Katanya, jika pengguna ingin mengelak dikenakan caj boleh membayar bil air selain di pejabat pos iaitu di pejabat PAIP di seluruh Pahang termasuk di Pusat Tranformasi Bandar (UTC) Pahang, di sini.
Sama ada pelan kedua itu jalan atau tidak, suka saya nak ingatkan di sini mengenai peristiwa yang berlaku pada tahun 1977 di Kelantan. Pada masa itu Pas Kelantan sedang menghadapi kerumitan untuk membuang MB mereka, Mohamad Nasir. Keadaannya samalah seperti apa berlaku di Selangor yang dihadapi PKR kini.
Untuk tujuan itu berbagai usaha dilakukan termasuk nasihat dan sebagainya. Parti juga memberi beberapa pandangan kepada Mohamad Nasir. Adapun sebab kenapa Mohamad Nasir hendak dipecat ialah kerana beliau dilihat tidak memberi keuntungan kepada parti sebaliknya berpihak kepada Umno. Pentadbirannya menyebabkan Umno untung. Walaupun diberi nasihat secara baik, tetapi Mohamad Nasir tetap berdegil untuk tidak melepaskan jawatan. Mulanya dia berjanji untuk berundur dengan baik, tetapi janji itu dimungkiri begitu sahaja.
Jalan terakhir diambil oleh Pas Kelantan dengan mengusulkan undi tidak percaya dalam DUN Kelantan. Usul itu dibawa oleh kumpulan 20 para Adun Pas yang tidak bersetuju dengan Mohamad Nasir. Usul berkenaan berjaya diluslukan dengan 20 undi menyokong 12 undi daripada Umno dan 1 MCA menentang. Kalau mengikut keputusan DUN itu Mohamad sudah hilang hak menjadi MB.
Tetapi usul undi tidak percaya itu tidak membawa apa-apa perubahan. Ia tidak menyelesaikan kemelut yang berlaku. Keengganan Mohamad Nasir menyebabkan ia tidak menamatkan krisis. Mohamad Nasir bukan sahaja dikenakan undi tidak percaya, sebaliknya ikut dipecat daripada PAS. Pemecatan itu juga tidak menghasilkan apa-apa.
Mohamad Nasir sebaliknya menajdi makin "manggak" apabila ada golongan yang menyokongnya di belakangnya. Kumpulan 12 orang Adun Umno bersamanya. Mereka ini memberi sokongan dan semangat kepada Mohamad Nasir agar tidak tunduk kepada desakan Pas serta tidak keluar dari pejabat SUK. Untuk menunjukkan Mohamad Nasir mendapat sokongan rakyat, Umno menggerakkan himpunan di beberapa jajahan bagi menyatakan sokongan kepada Mohamad Nasir.
Rengkas cerita, usul undi tidak percaya dan pemecatan Mohamad Nasir tidak kesampaian tujuannya. Sebaliknya ia memarahkan lagi keadaan. Himpunan rakyat membela Mohamad Nasir yang ditaja Umno berlaku dimana-mana sahaja. Ia berakhir dengan tunjuk perasaan yang mengakibatkan Kelantan diletak dibawah MAGERAN dan kuasa kerajaan Pas dibekukan.
Jadi tragedi yang menimpa Kelantan 37 tahun lalu perlu diingat dan diambil iktibar sebelum ada cadangan hendak mengusulkan undi tidak percaya kepada Khalid Ibrahim. Saya dapat gambarkan macam mana kalau DUN Selangor sedia menerima usul berkenaan untuk diundi, ribuan orang akan ke Shah Alam dengan pelbagai sepanduk. Dan sesungguhnya pihak musuh PR hanya sedang menanti detik-detik berkenaan saja untuk bertindak dan mengganas.
NGO-NGO yang makan upah, perut buncit dan misai melekong macam tanduk seladang, berasa seronok dan mereka akan mendapat peluang mengisi tembolok dengan kejadian itu nanti. Mereka inilah yang akan mendolor punggung Khalid ke langit dan menggelarkan Khalid "Pejuang Rakyat", "Pembela Rakyat" dan sebagainya seperti mana dilakukan kepada Mohamamd Nasir yang digelar sebagai "Datuk Jujur".
Janganlah peristiwa itu berulang di Selangor kerana ia sangat-sangat memeritkan sekali.[wm.kl.2:22 pm 11/07/14]
Siapa yg terlibat dlm melaga-lagakan pimpinan pentadbiran kerajaan negeri Selangor yg diketuai oleh Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim dan pihak istana baru-baru ini? Adakah tuduhan yang dibuat oleh lima pimpinan Keadilan baru-baru ini supaya MB Selangor untuk letak jawatan ada kaitan dgn mereka yang buat tuduhan palsu bahawa Sultan Selangor memperkenankan perletakan jawatan MB Selangor ? Tahniah kepada sekumpulan pakatan anak-anak negeri Selangor yang telah membuat laopran polis atas kejadian berita palsu...
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (KEADILAN) memandang tersangat penting insiden keganasan, penindasan dan pembunuhan umat Islam yang semakin meruncing mutakhir ini.
KEADILAN berharap dan berdoa agar negara-negara Islam bersatu di saat ini, bertindak bersama membela dan melindungi umat Islam kita.
Kejadian yang menimpa umat Islam di Palestin, China dan Myanmar di dalam bulan Ramadhan yang suci ini, begitu begitu menyayat hati, di saat kemampuan kita untuk menghulurkan pertolongan terbatas.
KEADILAN turut menzahirkan kebimbangan terhadap kegagalan negara-negara Arab untuk bersatu melindungi kesejahteraan umat Islam yang serantau.
Mutakhir yang berlaku di Palestin, meragut lebih 50 nyawa, lebih 300 yang cedera, banyak kediaman dan bangunan musnah akibat pengeboman tentera Israel yang tidak berperi kemanusiaan.
Sejak kejatuhan Presiden Mohammad Morsi, umat Islam di Gaza semakin tertekan kerana laluan masuk di pintu Rafah, untuk membolehkan bantuan kebajikan disampaikan, tersekat apabila Mesir menutup laluan tersebut.
9 Julai lalu, media melaporkan bahawa pintu Rafah dibuka di atas desakan PBB, namun kita tetap menggesa supaya tentera pengaman PBB ditempatkan di situ agar dapat memudahkan pengurusan bantuan kemanusiaan.
Dalam masa yang sama KEADILAN menggesa PBB bertindak segera menghentikan keganasan Israel di Gaza dan mendesak supaya tidak berlengah lagi menghantar delegasi ke Gaza untuk membuat tinjauan dan bantuan segera
KEADILAN juga menggesa pemerintah Mesir sentiasa membuka pintu sempadan dan memudahkan urusan petugas bantuan kemanusiaan masuk untuk membantu rakyat yang menjadi mangsa pengeboman Israel.
Apa yang berlaku di Palestin, turut berlaku di China. KEADILAN berasa amat kesal dengan kejadian penindasan yang berterusan terhadap umat Islam Uighur, sebagaimana dilapor media Aljazeera.
Selain daripada dinafikan hak untuk berpuasa, mereka dilaporkan dibunuh dengan kejam dan kaum wanita dirogol. Statistik ini telah dikemukakan kepada PBB, tetapi kita kesal tiada penyiasatan dibuat.
Terdapat laporan bahawa rekod kerajaan China terhadap umat Islam Uighur ini paling buruk sekali berbanding rekod layanan tentera Israel terhadap penduduk Palestin.
KEADILAN juga menzahirkan kerisauan terhadap tindakan pembersihan etnik yang dilakukan junta tentera terhadap umat Islam Rohingya di Myanmar.
PBB telah mengeluarkan statistik bahawa 80 peratus daripada pelarian di dunia adalah orang Islam. Ramai yang tidak bernegara, seperti Rohingya, tanpa kewarganegaraan atau hak kewarganegaraan.
Malah ada kalangan negara-negara umat Islam, sendiri menanggapi mereka sebagai pelarian dan dilayan sebagai penduduk kelas ketiga.
Umat Islam tidak seharusnya duduk berdiam diri apabila keganasan terus berlaku di Palestin, China dan Myanmar.
Justeru, marilah semua umat Islam berbuat apa yang mampu dan terdaya membantu rakan-rakan kita di Palestin, China dan Myanmar.
Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail Presiden KEADILAN
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